Secret Sister
by TwilightForever93
Summary: Set in Harry's fifth year. While at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters Harry finds out he has a twin sister.
1. Prologue

Secret Sister

Prologue

James and Lily Potter looked down at their two beautiful twins. A boy and a girl. Their names are Harry James Potter and Anna Lily Potter.

It was a cold October day, James and Lily was an the run from Lord Voldemort, a very powerful dark wizard. They have been on the run for a year now, ever since Harry and Anna were born.

Lily was upstairs putting the twins to bed, when she heard something going on downstairs.

"Lily! Take the kids and run!" Lily heard from downstairs.

Lily heard James die, and controlled a flood of tears. She tucked Anna under a blanket in hopes that no one would find her. She held Harry tight, and waited, scared. She couldn't run now, not with Anna so close.

Then she saw the Dark Lord.

'No!" she cried, or something like that. She was too confused and scared to remember right, "don't!"

"Stand aside, silly girl, stand aside…"

"No! Take me, kill me instead-not Harry! Not my Harry!"

"Foolish woman, do you not know you will die? Let me kill the child."

"No! Kill me, not my Harry, I won't let you! Take me instead!"

"As you wish…"

The last thing she saw was a rush of green light and she heard the sound of cold, high, cruel laughter.

Two days later, You-Know-Who was proclaimed gone, Death Eaters were gone, Sirius Black was in prison for the murder of Peter Pettigrew, and baby Harry Potter was in the care of the Dursleys. As for Anna Potter, she was presumed dead because no one found her body.

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A/N: Please review!**


	2. Harry Meet Your Sister

Chapter 1- Harry Meet Your Sister

**A/N: Thanks to bellatrix360 and Menelvagor for your review. You rock! This chapter takes place after Harry's hearing. Hope you guys like it!!!**

_'God, why would people want me up now, I mean so many people are still sleeping.'_ thought Harry walking down steps to get to the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place where his godfather Sirius Black and his ex-professor Remus Lupin wanted to speak with him.

When Harry walked into the kitchen he saw Sirius and Remus, but he also saw Dumbledore and a girl about his age with long black hair and emerald green eyes just like his. She was wearing a jean skirt that was knee length, and she had a black tank top on. Harry had to admit she was very pretty.

_'Okay, why does she look like me?'_ Harry asked himself silently.

"Welcome Harry. Why don't you sit down? I- we have something important to tell you." said Dumbledore. Harry then sat on one of the chairs beside Sirius and across from him was the mysterious girl seated beside Dumbledore.

"Harry, this might be a lot to take in, but you have a twin." said Dumbledore.

"What!" shouted Harry, "what else do I not know."

"Well, the nigh Voldemort attacked Lily took you and your sister Anna…" said Sirius.

"So I have a twin sister. Where is she?" asked Harry.

"As I was saying." said Sirius ignoring Harry's question, "Lily hid Anna so Voldemort couldn't find her and well you know the rest Harry, your parents died, you got the scar, and you went to live with the Dursleys."

"Then what happened to my sister?" asked Harry.

"Well, we thought she was dead considering we couldn't find her body." said Lupin.

"What do you mean you thought she was dead?" asked Harry.

"And what does this have to do with me?" asked the girl.

"It happens Harry that this girl beside me is indeed Anna Lily Potter," said Dumbledore, "why don't you tell us more about you."

With that Anna potter told them her story.

"Well….um…I lived with a family, but I always knew I was adopted. I had a good life so far, went to school, got good grades, I excelled in anything I put my mind to, and a lot of weird things have a happened to me but it was probably just a coincidence."

"Anna, I need to tell you one more thing before you can go off with your brother. You're a witch." said Dumbledore.

"What! No, how can I be a witch. I mean magic is not real." said Anna shaking her head.

"I can see how we're related. I said the same thing when I was eleven. I said 'no way, how could I be a wizard' but I am one and you being my sister, makes you a witch." said Harry.

"So this is real." said Harry.

"Yes it is." said Harry to his sister, "here, I'll take you to meet my friends, if they're up. I'm sure you'll like them."

Harry and Anna walked out of the kitchen.

"Why don't you wait here and I'll go get them." said Harry.

"Sure." said Anna.

Harry left Anna in the living room to go find Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. He went back to the room he was staying in to get his best mate: Ron. Harry walked in and found Ron still sleeping. Harry took one of his pillows off his bed and threw it at Ron's sleeping figure.

"Ron, wake up." said Harry after the pillow hit Ron.

"What was that for?" asked Ron.

"Come downstairs, I need to introduce you to someone."

"Okay. After I meet them, then can I go back to bed?"

"Yeah, sure."

"First we have to find Hermione and Ginny."

The both of them left their room to find Hermione and Ginny. They were walking towards The girls room when they found Hermione coming around the corner.

"Hey, Hermione. Can you find Ginny and meet us downstairs?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, sure. Why?" asked Hermione.

"I want you guys to meet someone."

"I'll go get her." said Hermione running off to find Ginny.

Harry and Ron started to head downstairs. They made their way into the living room. Harry saw Anna talking to Sirius, Remus, and Tonks.

"Ron, this is my twin sister Anna, Anna this is my best mate Ron Weasley." said Harry introducing the two.

Ron couldn't believe his ears. Harry has a sister. "Wow, nice to meet you. I didn't know you have a sister."

"I didn't know till like fifteen minutes ago." said Harry.

"Took you long enough to find your friends." said Anna while getting up to give Harry a hug.

"While, we would've been faster but Ron was still sleeping." said Harry returning the hug.

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"Why does Harry want to see us?" asked Ginny walking down the steps of 12 Grimmauld Place. 

"I don't know, Harry just said to get you and meet him and Ron downstairs."

Ginny and Hermione went down the stairs and saw Harry, Ron, Tonks, Sirius, Remus, and a girl they didn't recognize. She was hugging Harry. 

_'What does she have that I don't?'_ Ginny thought.

"Hey, you guys." said Harry letting go of Anna, "this is my twin sister Anna, Anna this is Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley."

"Hi." Anna said.

"Nice to meet you." Hermione and Ginny said.

"Wow, Harry you have a sister?" said Ginny.

"Yeah I recently found out."

"Okay, you five, I and a couple other members of the Order are going to take you to get your school stuff." said Tonks and then they all left for Diagon alley.


	3. Going to Hogwarts

Chapter 2-Going to Hogwarts

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I was sooooooo busy in the summer and with school starting I've had a lot of work. But I would like to thank everyone for your wonderful reviews. So thanks. Once again I am so sorry!!!!!!!! Hope you like this one. If you like this story see my other fics.**

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They all got back from Diagon Alley, with all their stuff fro their fifth year, and stuff for Ginny's fourth year. Anna really loved Diagon alley with all it's little shops and amazing things to buy. Her favourite part was getting a wand. Anna's wand was ebony and unicorn hair. It was eight and a half inches. 

"Wow that place was so amazing." said Anna.

"Glad you liked it." said Harry.

"So when exactly do we leave for Hogwarts?" asked Anna.

"In a few days," said Ron coming out of no where, "why?"

"I'm just so excited." said Anna.

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A few days passed by and Anna was more than ready to begin her magical training. Everyone was saying goodbye to all the people they would leave behind. It was almost time to leave so Anna, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all got on the train. 

"Okay, lets find somewhere to sit." said Harry.

"Well Hermione and I have to go to the prefects meeting." said Ron.

"We're sorry Harry." said Hermione.

"Yeah, that's fine. Lets go find a compartment." said Harry to his sister and Ginny.

They walked towards compartments but all of the ones they passed either was full or had a couple Slyhterins in them. They finally found one that only had a girl about the same age as Ginny in it. They were just about to open it when.

"Hey Harry." said Neville coming towards them.

"Hey, Neville." said Harry and Ginny.

"So, who is this?" asked Neville.

"Um… this is my sister Anna. Anna this is Neville Longbottom." said Harry introducing the two.

"You have a sister. Wow Harry I never knew."

They walked into the compartment and Ginny introduced them to Luna Lovegood.

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It was a long ride on the Hogwarts Express. Ron and Hermione came back halfway into the ride to Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy also came by to rub it in Harry's face that he became a prefect and Ron made it when Harry didn't. They finally made it to Hogwarts and Anna was blown away. She loved how Hogwarts looked from the outside she couldn't wait to see the inside. They came up to the carriages when Harry spoke. 

"What are those things?" asked Harry.

"What things?' asked Ron.

"Those things pulling the carriages." said Harry.

"I'm sorry Harry, but there's nothing there." said Anna.

They got into the carriage then Luna spoke to Harry.

"Don't worry, you're as sane as I am. I can see them too." said Luna.

They all went inside the castle and Anna went to stand with the first years while the rest of them sat at their house tables.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore at the podium, "I would like to say that we have a new student. Her name is Anna Potter."

While Anna went up to get sorted she heard whispers around her and most of the students were looking at Harry.

" _I wondered when I would be seeing you. You have traits of a Slytherin but you have some traits of a Gryffindor."_

" Not Slytherin." said Anna.

" _Are you sure? Then it will be GRIFFINDOR!"_

Anna made her way and sat with her brother and new friends.

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**A/N: Sorry it is so short. Please review.**


	4. The First Day

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but school has taken over my life, and I'm not just making excuses. I will try to update faster next time. I am not going to leave this fic un-finished. I will finish it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter; I only own the characters you don't recognize.**

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Chapter 3- The First Day

_Recap:_

_"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore at the podium, "I would like to say that we have a new student. Her name is Anna Potter."_

_While Anna went up to get sorted she heard whispers around her and most of the students were looking at Harry._

_" I wondered when I would be seeing you. You have traits of a Slytherin but you have some traits of a Gryffindor."_

_" Not Slytherin." said Anna._

_" Are you sure? Then it will be GRIFFINDOR!"_

_Anna made her way and sat with her brother and new friends._

_End Recap_

"Congratulations Anna on making Gryffindor!" said Harry while his sister sat beside him.

"Thank you." said Anna.

Everyone was asking Harry and Anna lots of complicated questions.

"Where were you all along Anna, and why didn't you come to Hogwarts?" asked a third year, Anna found out later her name was Robyn.

"Harry, how come you didn't know you had a sister?" said a fourth year boy named John.

"Hey Harry, can I date your sister?" said a random fifth year boy.

After he said that everyone started to laugh, even Anna and Harry.

After eating their dinner, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny showed Anna the Common Room.

"Wow this place is amazing!" said Anna when she entered the Common Room.

"Yeah this is where you will be living for the next year." said Ron.

It was getting really late so they all went to bed and waited for the next day of classes. They were all very excited but no one was more excited that Anna. Her first day of magical classes, who could not be excited.

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The next day Anna was bouncing off the walls with excitement. She was so excited, she hardly slept last night. Anna, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all went to the Great Hall to have breakfast. After they were done eating, they got their timetables.

Today they had Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Umbridge and Snape all in the same day." said Ron very un-happy.

"This day is going to be interesting." said Hermione.

"Yes it is." said Harry agreeing with the both of them.

"What's wrong with them?" asked Anna.

"Everything." said Ron, "Snape hates Gryffindors, so that brings trouble, and well Umbridge works for the Ministry, so that defiantly means trouble."

"HAHA. Good one Ron." said Harry.

It was finally the afternoon, which meant it was time for Professor Umbridge class.

The four of them walked to Defence Against the Dark Arts. They all found seats. Ron sat beside Hermione and Harry sat beside his sister. When they first entered the classroom they found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teacher's desk, wearing they fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head.

"Well, good afternoon!" she said, when finally the whole class had sat down.

A few people mumbled 'good afternoon' in reply.

"Tut, tut." said Professor Umbridge, " _that _won't do now will it. I will say it one more time and I expect you all to say 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge back.' Now good afternoon class"

"Good afternoon Professor Umbridge." said the whole class.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly, "that wasn't too difficult now, was it? Wands away and quills out please."

Most of the class was exchanging gloomy looks, the order 'wands out' had never yet been followed by a lesson they had found interesting. The class shoved their wand back inside their bags and pulled out their quills, ink and parchment. They were all sad that they weren't going to use their wands, but Anna was the saddest. Everyone said this class was one they used their wand the most, so she was so excited to use her wand. Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:

_Defence Against the Dark Arts_

_A Return to Basic Principals_

"Well mow, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated professor Umbridge, "the constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your OWL year. You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centred, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."

She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by the 'Course Aims'.

_1. Understanding the principals underlying defensive magic._

_2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used._

_3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use._

In the next few minutes only the scratching quills on parchment could be heard. When everyone was done copying down Professor Umbridge's course aims she asked, "Has everybody got a copy of _Defensive Magical Theory _by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

There was a dull murmur around the room.

"I think we'll try that again," said Professor Umbridge, "when I ask you a question, I should like you to reply 'Yes Professor, Umbridge,' or 'No, Professor Umbridge,' so has everybody got a copy of _Defensive Magical Theory _by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes Professor Umbridge." rang though the room.

"Good," said Professor Umbridge, "I would like you to turn to page five and read 'Chapter One, Basics For Beginners.' There will be no need to talk."

Professor Umbridge left the blackboard, and sat down at her desk. Harry opened his book, flipped to page five, and started to read. Harry looked right and noticed Hermione had not even opened her book. She was staring at Professor Umbridge with her hand in the air. After several minutes Harry was not the only one not watching Hermione, almost the whole class was staring at her.

"Do you want to ask me something about the chapter, dear?" Umbridge asked Hermione.

"Not about the chapter, no." said Hermione.

"Well we're reading now," said Professor Umbridge, "if you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."

"I have a query about your course aims." said Hermione.

Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows.

"And your name is?" asked Umbridge.

"Hermione Granger." she said.

"Well Miss Granger, I think the course aims are very clear, if you read them carefully." said Professor Umbridge.

"Well, I don't." said Hermione, "there is nothing in them about using defensive spells."

There was a short silence.

"Why would students like you need to learn defensive spells? Who would want to attack students?" asked Professor Umbridge.

"Well, maybe because Lord Voldemort is back!" said Harry getting out of his chair.

"Detention, Mr. Potter." said Umbridge, "you have all be told a certain dark wizard is back, this is a lie."

"It's not a lie. I saw him, I fought him!" said Harry his temper rising.

"One week, detention Mr. Potter." said Professor Umbridge while writing a note, "take this note to the head of your house."

Harry got up and did as he was told. He gathered his things and left with the note to find Professor McGonagall. While he was going to his class he ran into Peeves who was giving him a hard time. McGonagall found Harry yelling at Peeves.

"You have to not raise your voice with Professor Umbridge or you will get worse than a week of detention." said Professor McGonagall.

Harry left her office. Class must have ended because he found his sister outside McGonagall's office.

"Class is over already?" asked Harry.

"No, I got in trouble for defending you." said Anna, "so I have detention with you."

"Oh, well thank you. You didn't have to do that."

"Well it's too late now. What are sisters for."

Class finally ended, and Harry and Anna caught up with Ron and Hermione. It was dinnertime so they all went to eat. After they could eat no more, they headed to the Common Room to talk and do some homework. It was finally time to go to bed.

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A/N: Please review.**


	5. Detention

**A/N: Thank you to all the people who reviewed. Sorry for the long wait. With Christmas and school I haven't had a lot of time to spare. Once again sorry for the long wait. I don't own anything so don't sue me! **

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Chapter 4- Detention

Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not enjoyable for Harry. The news about his shouting match with Umbridge had travelled fast within Hogwarts. He heard whispers all around him as he sat between Anna and Ron. The thing was that none of the whisperers seemed to mind him overhearing what they were saying about him. It was though they wanted to make him angry and start shouting again, so that they could hear his story.

"He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered…"

"He reckons he duelled with You-Know-Who…"

"Come off it…"

"Who does he think he's kidding…"

"What I don't get," said Harry, "is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them…."

"The thing is Harry, I'm not sure they did," said Hermione cutting Harry off, "Oh, let's get out of here.

She slammed down her knife and fork. People stared at all of them, all the way out of the Hall.

"What do you mean, you're not sure they believed Dumbledore?" Harry asked Hermione when they reached the first floor landing.

"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," said Hermione quietly, "you arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body…… none of us saw what happened in the maze….we just had Dumbledore's word that You-Know-Who had come back and killed Cedric, and fought you."

"Which is the truth!" said Harry.

"I know it is, Harry, so will you please stop biting my head off?" said Hermione, "it's just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and Dumbledore's going senile."

Rain pounded on the windowpanes as they strode along the empty corridors, back to Gryffindor Tower.

"So Harry, what were people saying about you in the papers?" asked Anna.

"Well, pretty much they were saying how I'm lying about Lord Voldemort being back." said Harry.

Harry glanced out of a rain-washed window at the dark grounds as they turned into the Fat Lady's corridor.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia." said Hermione. The portrait swung open to reveal the hole behind it and the four of them scrambled through it.

"How can Dumbledore have let this happen?" Hermione cried while sitting in a chair, "how can he let that terrible woman teach us. And in our OWL year too!"

"Well, we've never had great Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" said Harry. "you know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job; they say it's jinxed."

"What do you mean the job is jinxed?" asked Anna.

"Well the first teacher was working with Voldemort, the second lost his memory, the third one, Remus Lupin, was the best we ever had, is a werewolf, and last years teacher was locked in a trunk." said Harry.

"Wow!" said Anna, "you have very wonderful teachers here."

"Yeah, wow indeed." said Ron.

They talked, did some homework until they got really tired, so they all decided to go to bed.

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After a whole day of classes, Harry was starving, and he had his first detention with Umbridge at five o'clock alongside hi sister Anna. So he headed straight to dinner without dropping off his bag in Gryffindor Tower, so that he could bolt something down before facing Umbridge. He had barely reached the entrance of the Great Hall, however when a loud and angry voice yelled, "Hey, Potter."

"What now?" he muttered.

"I'll tell you what now," Angelina Johnson said coming up to him, "how come you've landed yourself in detention on Friday?'

"What?" said Harry, "why…oh yeah, keeper tryouts!"

"Now he remembers," snarled Angelina, "didn't I tell you I wanted the _whole_ team."

"I didn't decide not to be there!" said Harry, "I got detention from that Umbridge woman, just because I told her the truth about You-Know-Who."

"Well you can go straight to her and ask her to let you off on Friday," she said, "and I don't care how you do it. Tell her You-Know-Who's a figment of your imagination if you like."

She turned on her heel and walked away. Harry finished dinner rather quickly, and caught up with Anna, so they could walk together toward Umbridge's dungeon. When they got there Harry knocked on the door.

"Come in." said a muffled voice.

Harry and Anna walked in the classroom.

"Welcome, Mister and Miss Potter."

"Before we start Professor, um…I'm part of the Gryffindor quid ditch team and I was hoping I can do my detention on a different day and not on Friday." said Harry.

"No, no, no, no. Detention is a punishment." said Umbridge, " you will come in on Friday. You two will be doing lines for me."

Harry and Anna sat down. When Harry started getting out his quill Umbridge spoke again.

"No you two will be using a special kind of quill," she said holding up two quills, " Mister Potter, you will write '_I must not tell lies'. _And miss Potter you will write '_I must not defend a liar'. _Okay get too it."

After their long and very painful detention, Anna and Harry walked very slowly back to the common room.

"Wow, this is going to take some serious time to heal." said Anna.

"Yeah, if we do that every detention, we'll never heal." Harry said.

"Once, we're done our detentions, I'll show that evil, old toad who's boss." she said while making her good hand into a fist.

"Yeah, then you'll defiantly get more detentions." he told her.

They got up to the Fat Lady's portrait, and Harry said the password.

"What did she give you guys?" asked Ron when they sat down.

"Lines." said Harry.

"Well it could have been worse." said Hermione.

"You have no idea," said Anna looking at her brother, "well I'm tiered, so I'm going to bed. Night."

"Night." said the three of them.

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A/N: Please review. If you like this one see my other fics as well.**


	6. Percy’s Letter

Chapter 5- Percy's Letter

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. This chapter is sort of all over the place and I am truly sorry. Thank you to all my reviewers. Sorry it's so short.**

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Harry was the first to wake up in his dormitory the next morning. He lay there for a moment watching dust swirl in the ray of sunlight coming through the gap in hi four-poster's hangings, and savoured the thought that it was Saturday. The first week of term seemed to have dragged on forever, like one gigantic History of Magic lesson.

He decided to head down into the common room to see if anyone else was awake yet. He walked slowly down the spiralling staircase, and when he got to the point where he could see the common room, he saw Anna sitting down reading one of her textbooks.

"Hey." Harry said while sitting down next to his sister.

"Hey." she replied back.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

"One of our text books. I don't know how you guys can remember all of this information. I just started school here and they put me in this level of training. They should just put me with the first years."

"You will get the hang of it, I know it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, eventually."

"Yeah, thanks." Anna said while she hit her brother.

He let her go back to her studies, so he decided to write a letter to Sirius. He wrote:

_Dear Snuffles,_

_Hope you're okay, the first week back here's been terrible, I'm really glad it's the weekend._

_We've got a new defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you last summer Happened again last night when Anna and I were doing detention withUmbridge._

_We're all missing our biggest friend; we hope he'll be back soon._

_Please write back quickly._

_Best,_

_Harry_

"I'll be right back. I'm going to mail this letter to Snuffles." said Harry.

"Snuffles? Oh, that Snuffles. Okay, don't get lost." said Anna

"I'll try not too." said Harry walking out of the common room.

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"Morning." said Harry to Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall.

"I see you didn't get lost." said Anna as Harry sat beside her.

"Nope."

"Darn. I was whishing you would've gotten lost."They talked during the rest of breakfast and they went through the _Profit _seeing if anything interesting was in the paper.

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The rest of the day Harry and Ron went to Quidditch practise, while Hermione helped Anna with magic and her homework. Harry and Ron came back into the common room, just before a letter from Percy came. Ron read the letter so all of them could hear what it said.

"WOW! What a load of rubbish." said Ron after reading it.

"Yeah. Wow, he must really hate you Harry." said Anna.

"Yeah I think so too." said Harry.

The night pasted by with a talk with Sirius in the fireplace. Then by the time they knew it. They had to go to bed.

**A/N: Please review!**


	7. A Great Idea

Chapter 6: A Great Idea

**A/N: Sorry for the long update! I just want to thank all my lovely reviewers. You guys rock! I don't know what I would do without you!**

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In Percy's letter he told them to look for something in _The Profit _the next morning and they made sure they paid attention to every single detail. They came across something they never expected.

MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM

DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED

FIRST EVER HIGH INQISITOR

Hermione read out the news article. When she was done they couldn't believe that the paper said that Umbridge was a success and that she would have more power over the school by inspecting teachers.

"She can't do that! Can she?" asked Ron.

"Yes Ronald I think she can. She got the ministers permission. But I feel like this is just the beginning." said Hermione.

"Well if she inspecting classes I guess we can't be late for class." said Ron.

"I think it'll be an improvement for you Ron. Getting to class early, how often does that happen." said Anna, "but I guess we should be going then."

They got to their History of Magic class, and were relieved when they saw Umbridge was nowhere in sight. She was also not there when they went to their double potion lesson. Snape handed back their moonstone essays and to Harry's disappointment he saw a big 'D' on it. All four of them went to the Entrance Hall so they could sit down and eat lunch. Hermione went on about the grade she got.

"Obviously, I would have been thrilled if I got an 'O'-"

"Hermione," asked Ron, " if you want to know what grade we got so badly, I got a 'P'."

"Well that's nothing to be ashamed of," said Fred sitting down next to them. George and Lee Jordan were also with him. "Nothings wrong with a good healthy 'P'"

"But doesn't 'P' stand for-" said Hermione.

"Poor yeah. But it's better that a 'D'" said Lee Jordan.

When Harry heard this, his face grew warm. Anna was the only one who saw this.

"So what did you get pretty little Anna?" asked George.

"Um……. I got and 'A'. And don't call me little, you can call me pretty thought that's acceptable." said Anna.

"Good job." said Fred.

"Yeah well that's only because Hermione helped me, I mean I've been doing magic and getting to know everything for only a short time." said Anna.

"So top grade's 'O' for 'Outstanding'." said Hermione.

"Then there's 'E' for 'Exceeds Expectations'. And I've always thought Fred and I should've got 'E' in everything because we exceeded expectations just for going to the exams." said George.

They all laughed except Hermione, who continued on, "So, after 'E' it's 'A' for "Acceptable', and that's the last pass grade isn't it?"

"Yep," said Fred.

"Then you get 'P' for 'Poor'," said Ron, "then 'D' for 'Dreadful."

"And then 'T'." George reminded him.

"'T'?" asked Hermione, "even lower that a 'D'? What on earth does 'T' stand for?"

"'Troll'", said George.

By the time they were done their wonderful conversation it was time for Harry, Ron, and Anna to go to Divination where they witnessed Umbridge inspect Professor Trelawney. Then it was time for Defence Against the Dark Arts, where Harry landed himself another week of detentions.

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A couple days went by when Ron and Hermione told Harry about a very good idea.

"Harry, Ron and I have a suggestion we would like to tell you. We thought it would be great if someone taught us Defence Against the Dark Arts the right way." said Hermione.

"Who would be willing to do that?' asked Harry, "and have enough experience."

"You silly." said Ron, " think, you have done more than some witches and wizard ever do in their life."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked .

"Well let's see, in first year you saved the Philosopher's Stone from You-Know-Who."

"That was luck," said Harry, "it wasn't skill -."

"Second year," interrupted Ron, "you killed the Basilisk and destroyed Riddle."

"Yeah, but if Fawks hadn't turned up, I -"

"Third Year," said Ron getting louder, "you fought off about a hundred Dementors at once -"

"You know that was a fluke, if the Time-Turner hadn't -"

"Last year," said Ron, almost shouting now, "you fought off You-Know-Who _again_ -"

"Listen half the time it was a fluke, I had help almost every time, and I didn't know what I was doing half the time anyways."

"Harry," said Hermione, "don't you see? This…….this is exactly why we need you……we need to know what it's r-really like….facing him…facing V-Voldemort."

It was the first time Hermione had said Voldemort's name and it calmed Harry down.

"Well please keep it in mind." said Hermione, "Please?"

"Harry," said Anna for the first time this night, "I think it's a good idea. This is my first time learning this stuff and I'm not about to let some hag spoil it. I just really wanted to tell you how I felt and that I will go with ever decision you make. Just think about it. Well I think I'm going to bed."

"Night." said Harry, while his sister gave him a hug.

"Night." she said to all of them.

When Harry went to bed he had dreams of long corridors and locked doors and he awoke the next day with his scar prickling again.

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A/N: Hope you liked it. I'm going on vacation soon and I have no idea when I'll get close to a computer. So I'll try to update when I come back!


	8. Fine, I'll Do It

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I didn't have time because of school, and on top of that I didn't have a computer for over a month. So once again I am so sorry. My pen name was originally AmyLeerox.**

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Chapter 7: Fine, I'll Do It

Hermione made no mention of Harry giving Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons for two whole weeks after her original suggestion. Harry and Anna's detentions with Umbridge we finally over; Ron had had four more Quidditch practises; and all four of them had managed to Vanish their mice in Transfiguration. The four of the were in the library, looking up Potion ingredients for Snape.

"I was wondering," Hermione said suddenly, "whether you'd thought any more about Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry."

"Course I have," said a grumpy Harry, "how can I forget we have that hag teaching us."

"No I mean the idea Ron and I had about you teaching." Ron gave Hermione a look, "okay, the idea I came up with."

Harry did not answer at once. He pretended to be perusing a page of Asiatic Anti-Venoms, because he did not want to say what was on his mind.

He had given the matter a great deal of thought over the past fortnight. Sometimes it seemed an insane idea, just as it had on the night Hermione proposed it, but at others, he had found himself thinking about the spells that had served him best in his various encounters with Dark creatures and Death Eaters - found himself, in fact, subconsciously planning lessons…

"Well," he said slowly, when he could no longer pretend to find the book interesting, "yeah, I - I've thought about it a bit."

"And?" said Hermione eagerly.

"I thought it was a good idea from the start," said Ron, who wanted to join the conversation.

"Me too." said Anna putting her thoughts in.

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?"

"Yes, Harry," said Hermione gently, "but all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at Defence Against the Dark Arts, because you are. You were the only person last year who could throw off the Imperius Curse completely, you can produce a Patronus, you can do all sorts of stuff like full-grown wizards can't, Viktor always said -"

Ron looked round at her so fast he appeared to crick his neck. Rubbing it, he said, "Yeah? What did Vicky say?"

"Ho ho," said Hermione in a bored voice. "He said Harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final year at Durmstrang."

Ron was looking at Hermione suspiciously.

Hermione shook her head and, ignoring Ron, who was continuing to watch her, said to Harry, "Well, what do you think? Will you teach us?"

"Just you, Ron and Anna, yeah?"

"Well," said Hermione, looking a mite anxious again. "well… now, don't fly off the handle again, Harry, please… but I really think you ought to teach anyone who wants to learn. I mean, we're talking about defending ourselves against V-Voldemort. Oh, don't be pathetic, Ron. It doesn't seem fair if we don't offer the chance to other people."

Harry considered this for a moment, then said, "Yeah, but I doubt anyone except you three would want to be taught by me. I'm a nutter, remember?"

"Well, I think you might be surprised how many people would be interested in hearing what you've got to say," said Hermione seriously. "Look," she leaned towards him - Ron, who was still watching her with a frown on his face, leaned forwards to listen too - "you know the first weekend in October's a Hogsmeade weekend? How would it be if we tell anyone who's interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over?"

"Why do we have to do it outside of school?" asked Ron.

"Because," said Hermione, returning to he diagram she was coping, "I don't think Umbridge would be very happy if she found out what we were up to."

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A/N: Please review.


	9. Hogsmead

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I've been really busy and I haven't had time to update. I've been babysitting all summer so I had no time to update. Once again sorry for the long wait! I was going to make this longer, but I'm going to Edmonton for two weeks so I'm just posting what I have so far. Hopefully I'll be able to write while I'm gone.**

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Chapter 8: Hogsmead

The morning of the Hogsmead visit dawned bright but windy. After breakfast they queued in front of Filch, who matched their names to the long list of students who had permission from their parents of guardian to visit the village. Harry remembered if it wasn't for Sirius, Anna and him wouldn't be going at all.

They walked between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars and turned left on to the road into the village, the wind whipping their hair into their eyes.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Anna asked.

"The Three Broomsticks?" asked Harry.

"Oh - no," said Hermione, "no, it's always packed and really noisy. I've told the others to meet us in the Hog's Head, that other pub, you know the one, it's not on the main road. I think it's a bit … you know … dodgy … but students don't normally go in there, so I don't think we'll be overheard."

They walked down the main street past Zonko's Wizarding Joke Shop, where they were not surprised to see Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, past the post office, from which owls issued at regular intervals, and turned up a side-street at the top of which stood a small inn. A battered wooden sign hung from a rusty bracket over the door, with a picture on it of a wild boar. The sign creaked in the wind as they approached. All four of them hesitated outside the door.

"Are you sure it's safe to go in there?" asked Anna.

"Well, come on," said Hermione, slightly nervously, Harry led the way inside.

It was not at all like the Three Broomsticks, whose large bar gave an impression of gleaming warmth and cleanliness. The hog's head bar comprised one small, dingy and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. The bay windows were so encrusted with grime that very little daylight could permeate the room, which was lit instead with the stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. The floor seemed at first glance to be compressed earth, though as Harry stepped on to it he realised that there was stone beneath what seemed to be the accumulated fifth of centuries.

"I don't know about this Hermione," Harry muttered, as they crossed to the bar. He was looking particularly at the heavily veiled witch. "Has it occurred to you Umbridge might be under that?"

Hermione cast an appraising eye over the veiled figure.

"Umbridge is shorter than that women," she said quietly. "And anyway, even if Umbridge does come in here I've double- and triple-checked the school rules. We're not out of bounds; I specifically asked Professor Flitwick whether students were allowed to come in the Hog's head, and he said yes, but he advised me strongly to bring our own glasses. And I've looked up everything I can think of about study groups and homework groups and they're definitely allowed. I just don't think it's a good idea if we parade what we're doing."

"It's true, I was there when she was looking that stuff up. It was pretty boring, but we're not going to be breaking any rules." said Anna.

"No," said Harry drily, "especially as it's not exactly a homework group you're planning, is it?"

The barman sidled towards them out of a back room. He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long grey hair and a beard. He was all and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry.

"What?" he grunted.

"Four Butterbeers, please," said Hermione.

The man reached beneath the counter and pulled up four very dusty, very dirty bottles, which he slammed on the bar.

"Eight Sickles," he said.

"I'll get them," said Harry quickly, passing over the silver. The barman's eyes travelled over Harry, resting for a fraction of a second on his scar. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Anna retreated to the furthest table from the bar and sat down, looking around.

"So, who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his Butterbeer and taking a swing.

"Just a couple of people," Hermione repeated, checking her watch and looking anxiously towards the door, "I told them to be here about now and I'm sure they all know where it is - oh, look, this might be them now."

The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by the incoming rush of a crowd of people.

First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho and one of her usually-giggling friends, then Luna Lovegood; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott; three Ravenclaw boys he was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot, Ginny, and brining up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan.

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A/N: Please review!


	10. In the Hog's Head

**A/N: I am really really sorry for the long wait. I have been super busy with school and stuff. Now that its summer and I'm finished school I can probably update weekly. **

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Chapter 9: In the Hog's Head

"A couple of people?" said Harry to Hermione. "_A couple of people?"_

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily. "Ron, can you and Anna pull up more chairs?"

The barman looked like he had never seen his pub so full.

Harry could not imagine what all these people had turned up for.

"Not what you expected, right?" asked Anna coming up behind her brother.

"No at all. What did Hermione promise a speech." said Harry. He thought about this and thought that was a horrible thought.

"I really don't know, what she promised them." replied Anna, "I guess we'll find out soon though."

Harry made his way to Hermione as Anna went to go talk to Fred and George.

"What have you been telling people?" he said in a low voice. "What are they expecting?"

"I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say." Said Hermione soothingly; but Harry continued to look at her so furiously that she added quickly, "You don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first."

"Hi, Harry," said Neville, beaming and taking a seat opposite him.

Harry tried to smile back, but did not speak; his mouth was dry. Cho had just smiled at him and sat down on Ron's right. Her friend did not smile, but gave Harry a thoroughly mistrustful look which plainly told him that, given her way, she would not be here at all.

In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around Harry, Ron, Anna, and Hermione, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna Lovegood gazing dreamily into space. When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry.

"Er," said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. "Well – er – hi."

The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry. Some eyes were on Anna too, some people still couldn't believe she was Harry's sister.

"Well… erm… well, you know why you're here. Erm… well, Harry here had the idea – I mean" (Harry had thrown her a sharp look and Anna had elbowed her) "I had the idea – that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts – and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us –" (Hermione's voice became much stronger and more confident) "- because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts –" ("Hear, hear," said Anna, and Hermione looked heartened) "- Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells –"

"You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said Michael Corner, who was watching her closely.

"Of course I do," said Hermione at once, "But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because … because…" she took a great breath and finished, "because Lord Voldemort is back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.

"Well… that's the plan, anyways," said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to –"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said a Hufflepuff.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it – "Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes _him_," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.

"Who are _you_?" said Ron, rather rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," said Anna for the first time, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about –"

"It's okay, Anna," said Harry.

It had just dawned on Harry why there were so many people there. He thought Hermione should have seen this coming. Some of these people – maybe even most of them – had turned up in hopes of hearing Harry's story firsthand.

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" Harry repeated, looking Zacharias straight in the face. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Anna even had the impression that even the barman was listening.

Zacharias said, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know –"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," harry said. His temper, always so close to the surface these days, was rising again. Anna put a hand on Harry's shoulder to try to calm him down. Harry did not take his eyes from Zacharias Smith's aggressive face, and was determined not to look at Cho. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

He cast an angry look in Hermione's direction. This was, he felt, all her fault; she had decided to display him like some sort of freak and of course they had all turned up to see just how wild his story was. But none of them left their seats.

"So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So… like I was saying… if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to –"

"Is it true," interrupted girl, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.

"Yeah," said harry slightly defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

The phrase stirred something in Harry's memory.

"Er – you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" he asked.

The girl smiled.

"She's my auntie," she said. "I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So – is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"Blimey, Harry!" said Lee, looking deeply impressed. "I never knew that!"

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," said Fred. "She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong," mumbled Harry to Anna, and a couple people laughed.

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" demanded Terry Boot. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year…"

"Er – yeah, I did, yeah." Said Harry.

Everyone looked astonished and Anna said "Wow!" softly.

"And in our first year," said Neville to the group at large, "he saved the Philological Stone –"

"Philosopher's," hissed Hermione.

"Yeas, that – from You-Know-Who," finished Neville.

There as lots of chat about all of Harry's accomplished including the Triwizard Tournament and how he saved himself from Dementors in the summer.

"Did you really do all that stuff harry?" asked Anna.

"Yeah, I really did." Replied Harry.

"Wow!" said Anna.

Everyone talked longer and they all agreed that they would take lessons from Harry. Next they all voiced their opinions on where to meet but didn't figure out where would be the best place.

Hermione got out a piece of parchment and everyone signed their names.

Everyone left in groups of twos and threes.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Anna returned to Hogwarts after a long afternoon.

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A/N: Please review. It would mean the world to me.


	11. Educational Decree Number Twentyfour

**A/N: Really sorry for the long wait.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.**

Chapter 10: Educational Decree Number Twenty-four

The next morning everyone saw that there was a rather large sign on the Gryffindor noticeboard, so large that it covered everything else on it. The new sign was printed in large black letters and there was a highly official-looking seal at the bottom beside a neat and curly signature.

_BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS_

_All student organisations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henceforth disbanded._

_An organisation, society, team, group or club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students._

_Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge)_

_No student organisation, society, team, group or club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor._

_Any student found to have formed, or belong to, an organisation, society, team, group or club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled._

_The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four._

_Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor_

Harry and Ron read the notice over the heads of some anxious-looking second-years.

"I don't think we're going to be lucky, though, do you?" Ron asked Harry as the second-years hurried away.

Harry was reading the notice through again. The happiness that filled him since Saturday was gone. His insides were pulsing with rage.

"This isn't a coincidence," he said, his hands forming fists. "She knows."

"She can't," said Ron at once.

"There were people listening in that pub," said Anna coming up behind them, "And let's face it, we don't know how many of the people who turned up we can trust. Don't you think it's weird that she does something like this just a couple of days after we had that meeting? Anyone at the meeting could have run off and told Umbridge. My moneys on that Smith character."

"Zacharias Smith!" said Ron at once, punching a fist into his hand. "Or – I thought that Michael Corner had a really shifty look, too –"

"I wonder if Hermione's seen this yet." Harry said, looking round at the door to the girl's dormitories.

"She still up there. I'm pretty sure boys aren't allowed up there so I guess I'll have to go get her." said Anna.

Anna came back a few seconds later with Hermione in tow.

"Look at this!" said Ron.

Hermione's eyes slid rapidly down the notice. Her expression became stony.

"Someone must have blabbed to her!" Ron said angrily.

"They can't have done that," said Hermione in a low voice.

"You're so naïve," said Ron, "you think just because you're all honourable and trustworthy –"

"No, they can't have done, because I put a jinx on that piece of parchment we all signed." said Hermione grimly.

"So that's what you did to it when I saw you with your wand to the parchment." said Anna.

"Yeah. Believe me, if anyone's run off and told Umbridge, we'll know exactly who they are and they will really regret it." said Hermione.

"What will happen to them?" asked Ron eagerly.

""Well, put it this way," said Hermione, "it'll make Eloise Midgeon's acne look like a couple of cute freckles. Come on, let's get down to breakfast and see what the others think … I wonder whether this has been put up in all the houses."

It was immediately apparent on entering the Great Hall that Umbridge's sign had not only appeared in Gryffindor Tower. There was a peculiar intensity about the chatter and an extra measure of movement in the Hall as people scurried up and down their tables conferring on what they had read. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Anna had barely taken their seats when Neville, Dean, Fred, George and Ginny descended upon them.

"Did you see it?"

"D'you reckon she knows?"

"What are we going to do?"

"Will everyone just shut it for a minute!" yelled Anna, "of course we saw it."

Everyone was still looking at Harry. He glanced around to make sure there were no teachers near them.

"We're going to do it anyways, of course," he said quietly.

"Knew you'd say that," said George, beaming and thumping Harry on the arm.

"The prefects as well?" asked Fred, looking quizzically at Ron and Hermione.

"Of course," said Hermione coolly.

"Here comes Ernie and Hannah Abbott," said Ron, looking over his shoulder. "_And_ those Ravenclaw blokes and Smith … and no one looks very spotty."

Hermione looked alarmed.

"Never mind spots, the idiots can't come over here now, it'll look really suspicious – sit down!" she mouthed to Ernie and Hannah, gesturing frantically to them to re-join the Hufflepuff table. "Later! We'll – talk – to – you- _later_!"

"I'll tell Michael," said Ginny impatiently, swinging herself off her bench, "the fool, honestly…"

She hurried off towards the Ravenclaw table; Harry watched her go. Cho was sitting not too far away, talking to the curly-haired friend she had brought along to the Hog's Head. Would Umbridge's notice scare her off meeting them again?

"When are you going to ask her out?" asked Anna, making harry blush a little bit.

"What are you talking about?" said Harry.

"I see the way you look at her. Just go ask her out." said Anna nudging him a little bit.

"I don't know. What if she says no?" said Harry.

"She'll be a complete idiot for saying no and I see the way she looks at you. Trust me, she'll say yes for sure." Anna said, making Harry a little bit more confident.

"Really? Thanks Anna." Said Harry.

"No problem," said Anna getting out of her seat, "we better go, or we'll be late for History of Magic."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Anna made their way to the classroom.

**A/N: Please review!**


	12. Anna's Talk with Dumbledore

**A/N: So sorry for the long wait. I promise I will get this story finished, I have just been really busy and I am not just saying that. Since its summer now I hope to update weekly.**

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Chapter 11: Anna's Talk with Dumbledore

After a long day of classes Anna and Hermione started to work on their History of Magic essay that was assigned that day, while Harry and Ron were setting up to play a game of Wizard's Chess.

"You know you two should really start the History of Magic essay." said Hermione to the boys.

"Come off it Hermione. The essays not due till next week, there's loads of time to finish it." said Ron.

"You know Hermione's right Ron. All this work is going to pile up if you leave it to the last minute." replied Anna.

"Maybe they're right Ron. Let's just play one quick game and then we'll start the essay. Hermione you'll help us with it right?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, I guess." said Hermione.

Harry and Ron continued with their game while Hermione and Anna started their essay. After a few minutes of hard work a third year boy came and gave a letter to Anna.

"What does it say?" asked Harry.

"It's from Dumbledore, he wants me to come to his office to have a chat with me." answered Anna.

"I wonder why he wants to talk to you. Are you in trouble or anything?" said Ron.

"I don't think so. It also says that he likes Acid Pops. What does that mean?" asked Anna to the trio.

"That's probably the password to get into his office." said Hermione.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't keep him waiting." said Anna getting off the couch and walking to the portrait hole. She then turned around and looked at the trio, "Um... I just realized I don't know where his office is."

"I'll show you." said Harry.

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Harry and Anna talked while they made their way to Dumbledore's office. They stopped in front of the gargoyle statue.

"Well here we are." said Harry, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, I'll be fine. I think this is something I need to do on my own and besides Dumbledore just asked me to come." replied Anna.

"Okay, you know I worry about you." said Harry concerned.

"I'll be fine. The worst that will happen is he'll offer me one of those horrid Lemon Drops. I hate those things." said Anna.

"Yeah, I'm not a big fan of them either. Well you should go. Do you want me to wait out here for you?" asked Harry.

"No, I believe I can find my way back." said Anna looking at the gargoyle statue, "See you Harry. Acid Pop."

While Harry turned and went back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Anna walked up the stairs to get to Dumbledore's office. When Anna got to the door, she knocked on it.

"Come in." came a reply.

Anna walked into the room and was amazed with all of the things in the office.

"Ah, Miss Potter I see you got my message. I'm surprised your brother didn't tag along, it seems like he won't let you out of his sight." said Dumbledore.

"So I wasn't the only one that noticed that. Yeah, he wanted to come but I told him I wanted to do this alone." replied Anna.

"I wise choice. Please have a seat." said Dumbledore while waving to the chair in front of his desk.

Anna sat down in the chair and looked at Dumbledore.

"So you must be wondering why you're here?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yeah I am. Am I in trouble?" said Anna.

"No," said Dumbledore chuckling, "I asked to see you to talk about how you like it here."

"Um… it has been amazing so far. It's taken me a while to adjust to everything but it's been great. Everyone is so nice and I made a few friends. But... um"

"I bet you're wondering why I put you in fifth year, am I correct."

"Yeah, I mean I didn't know any of this stuff before I came here and it feels weird being in a class with people who have been at this for years now. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and I'm worried about the O.W.L.s"

"I have complete faith in you Anna. Many of the teachers here were worried about you being in fifth year classes but after teaching you they all have complete faith in you as well. Professor McGonagall has told me that you have been doing very well in her class and sees promise in you. All of the teachers say the same thing."

"Well Hermione has been helping me. I don't think I could have done it without her." said Anna.

"Yes, Miss Granger is a bright witch. Now what do you know of Lord Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore.

"Not much, only what Harry has told me." replied Anna.

"Now, I believe Voldemort doesn't know you exist because he didn't target when you were a baby but that doesn't mean he doesn't know about you. So when you're not in Hogwarts you will have to be extra careful when you go home to your adoptive parents because I have a feeling when he finds out about you he will come after you."

"Okay. Wait does that mean I get to go home to my parents and not to my aunt and uncle's place?" asked Anna.

"That's right, I feel it will be better off for you to return to your adoptive parents during breaks because they are the ones who raised you and you might better off living in the Muggle world than in the Wizarding world during breaks. But for safety reasons we will have members of the Order watching your house for any signs of trouble and I will personally put up enchantments to conceal the house from Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

"Thank you professor, it means a lot to me." said Anna.

"Your quite welcome my dear. It's getting late now, so I believe you should be getting back to your dorm before you receive a detention." said Dumbledore.

"Thanks professor." said Anna while walking to the door.

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Anna walked down the staircase and entered the corridor. She wasn't alone.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Miss Potter out in the corridor all alone." said someone hiding in the shadows. Anna turned around and saw Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy! What do you want?" asked Anna annoyed.

"What, can't I say hi? I must say Anna, you are very different than your idiot of a brother." said Malfoy.

"Hey, watch it." snapped Anna.

"You know you'd make quiet a good Slytherin," he said observing her closely for a moment.

"Should I take that as a complement?" Anna asked astonished.

Malfoy rolled his eyes at her antics.

"You did hear my _whole_ name at the sorting didn't you?" she said stressing the word whole.

"Yes I did."

"Well, then what are you doing so close next to me? I'm a Potter."

"Yes, but you are different from your brother. You have a dark aura about you."

Anna narrowed her eyes at him, "You have no proof."

"No, but I can feel it." he said walking closer to her.

"Well feel this. Expelliarmus!" cried Anna.

Malfoy was thrown back a few feet from Anna's spell and landed on his back. After a few seconds he got to his feet.

"You really would have made a good Slytherin."

She smirked at him. A smirk good enough to rival his own.

"You're good at Defense I can tell. Have you ever considered joining the Death Eaters?" he asked.

Anna's eyes widened with surprise then anger. "If you ever want to live to see past the age of twenty then you will not ever extend that invitation again, as it may seem to you that being a Death Eater is an honour but for me it's a death sentence."

Anna turned and walked away leaving a very shocked Malfoy.

'_She will be mine_' thought Malfoy.

* * *

"How was the meeting?" asked Hermione when Anna entered the Gryffindor Common Room.

"It was good, I got a couple of my questions answered so that was good." said Anna.

"So Dumbledore didn't give you a hard time?" asked Harry.

"No, he just wanted to see how I'm adjusting to Hogwarts and magic," replied Anna, "well I think I'm going to turn in. I'll see you all in the morning."

Anna didn't know if she should tell them about what happened with Malfoy and she felt as if Dumbledore was keeping something important from her.

* * *

**A/N: Please review!**


	13. Letter to Mum and Dad

**A/N: This chapter is mainly for you all to get to know a little more about Anna. I know it's short but hopefully I will be able to post another full chapter soon.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Letter to Mum and Dad

Dear Mum and Dad,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am very sorry that I haven't written as often as you would like me to. I have been buried under school work. I knew that it would be hard doing fifth year work, but I didn't realize it would be this hard. I spend at least three hours every night doing homework and if I wasn't for Hermione (I'll tell you more about her later in this letter) I believe I would be spending more time than that on school work. The only time I've left the castle to do anything is to watch the Quidditch games, otherwise I just stay in the common room or library studying.

Mum and Dad, I'm not going to lie. These last few months have been a hard transition and if it wasn't for all of the amazing new friends I made I believe I would've begged Professor Dumbledore to let me come home to you. I am okay... I am... to some extent. People stare at me like I'm some sort of freak and I think it's because I'm Harry's sister. Don't get me wrong it's been great getting to know him but people treat me as if we are the same person.

Harry is probably the best brother anyone could ever have and I am so grateful to Professor Dumbledore for finding me and introducing him to me. Harry has been telling me everything about the Wizarding World and I am fascinated by everything. Even though I met Harry only a few short months ago it feels like I have known him all of my life and his friends have been anything but kind to me. His best mate Ron Weasley is truly a character and when you put Harry and Ron together you are guarantied for a good laugh. His other friend Hermione is probably the smartest person I have ever met. It is because of her that I have been able to handle all of the school work. She has helped me out a lot and I am forever in her debt. Her parents are muggles too! Isn't that cool, so we always have something to talk about.

Anyways, I have made so many great friends and I can't wait for you two to meet them all. Professor Dumbledore said you two can join us for Christmas with the Weasleys! He will talk to you about the details. Harry can't wait to meet you both and I can't wait to see you. I miss you two so much and I hope I will be able to write to you again soon.

Love you always,

Anna


	14. The First Meeting of Dumbledore's Army

Chapter 13: The First Meeting of Dumbledore's Army

The next day was an eventful one. Harry realized Umbridge was watching his mail, which resulted in an injured Hedwig. His scar also pained him after Quidditch practice which made Harry think Voldemort was angry because something wasn't getting done fast enough.

Midnight came and went while Harry was reading and rereading a passage about the uses of scurvy-grass, lovage and sneezewort and not taking in a word of it. Anna had fallen asleep on the couch while she was studying.

These plants are most efficacious in the inflaming of the brain, and are therefore much used in Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts, where the wizard is desirous of producing hot-headedness and recklessness…

_… Hermione said Sirius was becoming reckless cooped up in Grimmauld Place…_

_… most efficacious in the inflaming of the brain, and are therefore much used…_

_… the Daily Prophet would think his brain was inflamed if they found out that he knew what Voldemort was feeling…_

_… therefore much used in Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts…_

_… confusing was the word, all right; why did he know what Voldemort was feeling? What was this weird connection between them, which Dumbledore had never been able to explain satisfactorily?_

_… where the wizard is desirous…_

_… how Harry would like to sleep…_

_… producing hot-headedness…_

_… it was warm and comfortable in his armchair before the fire, with the rain still beating heavily on the windowpanes, Crookshanks purring, the crackling of the flames, and the sound of Anna's soft snores…_

The book slipped from Harry's slack grip and landed with a dull thud on the hearthrug. His head rolled sideways…

_He was walking once more along a windowless corridor, his footsteps echoing in the silence. As the door at the end of the passage loomed larger, his heart beat fast with excitement… if he could only open it… enter beyond… He stretched out his hand… his fingertips were inches from it…_

"Harry Potter, sir!"

He awoke with a start. The candles had all been extinguished in the common room, but there was something moving close by.

"Whozair?" said Harry, sitting upright in his chair. The fire was almost out, the room very dark.

"Dobby has your owl, sir!" said a squeaky voice.

"Dobby?" said Harry thickly, peering through the gloom towards the source of the voice.

Dobby the house-elf was standing beside the table on which Hermione had left half a dozen of her knitted hats. His large, pointed ears were now sticking out from beneath what looked like all the hats Hermione had ever knitted; he was wearing one on top of the other, so that his head seemed elongated by two or three feet, and on the very topmost bobble sat Hedwig, hooting serenely and obviously cured.

"Harry? What's going on?" said Anna sleepily while getting up from the couch.

"Nothing. Um... Anna this is Dobby, Dobby this is my sister Anna." said Harry introducing the two.

"Nice to meet you Dobby." said Anna.

"You too Anna. Anyways, Dobby has volunteered to return Harry Potter's owl," said the elf squeakily, with a look of positive adoration on his face, "Professor Grubbly-Plank says she is all well now, sir." He sank into a deep bow so that his pencil-like nose brushed the threadbare surface of the hearthrug and Hedwig gave an indignant hoot and fluttered on to the arm of Harry's chair.

"Thanks, Dobby!" said Harry, stroking Hedwig's head and blinking hard, trying to rid himself of the image of the door in his dream… it had been very vivid. Surveying Dobby more closely, he noticed that the elf was also wearing several scarves and innumerable socks, so that his feet looked far too big for his body. Anna noticed this too, remembering all the times she saw Hermione knitting clothes.

"Er… have you been taking all the clothes Hermione's been leaving out?" said Anna.

"Oh, no, miss," said Dobby happily. "Dobby has been taking some for Winky, too, sir."

"Yeah, how is Winky?" asked Harry.

Dobby's ears drooped slightly.

"Winky is still drinking lots, sir," he said sadly, his enormous round green eyes, large as tennis balls, downcast. "She still does not care for clothes, Harry Potter. Nor do the other house-elves. None of them will clean Gryffindor Tower any more, not with the hats and socks hidden everywhere, they finds them insulting, sir. Dobby does it all himself, sir, but Dobby does not mind, sir, for he always hopes to meet Harry Potter and tonight, sir, he has got his wish!" Dobby sank into a deep bow again. "But Harry Potter does not seem happy," Dobby went on, straightening up again and looking timidly at Harry. "Dobby heard him muttering in his sleep. "Was Harry Potter having bad dreams?"

"Not really bad," said Harry, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "I've had worse."

The elf surveyed Harry out of his vast, orb-like eyes. Then he said very seriously, his ear drooping, "Dobby wishes he could help Harry Potter, for Harry Potter set Dobby free and Dobby is much, much happier now."

Harry smiled.

"You can't help me, Dobby, but thanks for the offer."

He bent and picked up his Potions book. He'd have to try to finish the essay tomorrow. He closed the book and as he did so the firelight illuminated the thin white scars on the back of his hand - the result of his detentions with Umbridge…

"Wait a moment - there is something you might be able to help us with, Dobby," said Anna slowly. The elf looked round, beaming.

"Name it, Anna Potter, miss!"

"We need to find a place where twenty-nine people can practice Defense Against the Dark Arts without being discovered by any of the teachers. Especially," Anna said looking at the scars on Harry's hand, "Professor Umbridge."

Anna expected the elf's smile to vanish, his ears to droop; she expected him to say it was impossible, or else that he would try to find somewhere, but her hopes were not high. What she had not expected was for Dobby to give a little skip, his ears waggling cheerfully, and clap his hands together.

"Dobby knows the perfect place, miss!" he said happily. "Dobby heard tell of it from the other house-elves when he came to Hogwarts, miss. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, miss, or else as the Room of Requirement!"

"Harry we might be on to something!" said Anna excitedly.

"Why is it called the Room of Requirement?" said Harry curiously.

"Because it is a room that a person can only enter," said Dobby seriously, "when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, sir," said the elf, dropping his voice and looking guilty, "when Winky has been very drunk; he has hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir…and Dobby knows Mr. Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and -"

"And if you really needed a bathroom," said Harry, suddenly remembering something Dumbledore had said at the Yule Ball the previous Christmas, "would it fill itself with chamber pots?"

"Dobby expects so, sir," said Dobby, nodding earnestly. "It is a most amazing room, sir."

"How many people know about it?" said Anna, sitting up straighter in her chair.

"Very few, miss. Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, miss, but often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, miss."

"It sounds brilliant," said Harry, his heart racing. "It sounds perfect, Dobby. When can you show us where it is?"

"Any time, Harry Potter, sir," said Dobby, looking delighted at Harrys enthusiasm. "We could go now, if you like!"

For a moment Harry and Anna were tempted to go with Dobby. They were halfway out of their seats, Harry intending to hurry upstairs for his Invisibility Cloak when, not for the first time, a voice very much like Hermione's whispered in his ear: reckless.

It was, after all, very late, he was exhausted, and they both had Snape's essay to finish.

"Not tonight, Dobby," said Harry reluctantly, sinking back into his chair. "This is really important… I don't want to blow it, it'll need proper planning. Listen, can you just tell me exactly where this Room of Requirement is, and how to get in there?"

* * *

The next morning if Harry ran into anyone he would tell them when and where they were meeting for Defense lessons. It was lunch time when Harry found Hermione watching him.

"What?" he said thickly.

"Well… it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe. Don't you remember when he lost you all the bones in your arm?"

"This room isn't just some mad idea of Dobby's; Dumbledore knows about it, too, he mentioned it to me at the Yule Ball."

Hermione's expression cleared.

"Dumbledore told you about it?"

"Just in passing," said Harry, shrugging.

"Oh, well, that's all right then," said Hermione briskly and raised no more objections.

Together with Ron and Anna they had spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list in the Hog's Head and telling them where to meet that evening. Somewhat to Harry's disappointment, it was Ginny who managed to find Cho Chang and her friend first; however, by the end of dinner he was confident that the news had been passed to every one of the twenty-five people who had turned up in the Hog's Head.

* * *

At half past seven Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Anna left the Gryffindor common room, Harry clutching a certain piece of aged parchment in his hand. Fifth-years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o'clock, but all three of them kept looking around nervously as they made their way along the seventh floor.

"Hold it," Harry warned, unfolding the piece of parchment at the top of the last staircase, tapping it with his wand and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

A map of Hogwarts appeared on the blank surface of the parchment. Tiny black moving dots, labeled with names, showed where various people were.

"That is so cool." said Anna.

"Filch is on the second floor," said Harry, holding the map close to his eyes, "and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."

"And Umbridge?" asked Anna anxiously.

"In her office," said Harry, pointing. "Okay, lets go."

They hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had described to Harry and Anna, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

"Okay," said Harry quietly, while a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would be ballet teacher to watch them. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."

They did so, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-sized vase on its other side. Ron had screwed up his eyes in concentration; both Anna and Hermione were whispering something under their breath; Harry's fists were clenched as he stared ahead of him.

_We need somewhere to learn to fight… he thought. Just give us a place to practice… somewhere they can't find us…_

"Harry!" said Hermione sharply, as they wheeled around after their third walk past.

A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Ron was staring at it, looking slightly wary.

Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moodys office.

"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning, " said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.

"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. Anna came and looked at the books with her.

"A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions… The Dark Arts Outsmarted… Self-Defensive Spellwork… wow…" She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right.

"Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

And without further ado she slid 'Jinxes for the Jinxed' from its shelf, sank on to the nearest cushion and began to read.

There was a gentle knock on the door. Harry looked round. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean had arrived.

"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"

Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him. Hermione carefully marked her page of 'Jinxes for the Jinxed' and set the book aside.

"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've - er - obviously found it okay."

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled…"

He gazed for a moment into the cracked Foe-Glass; shadowy figures were moving around inside it, though none was recognizable. He turned his back on it.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.

"Harry's leader," said Anna at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly.

"Er - right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And -what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Anna hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

"All in favor of the D.A.?" said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority - motion passed!"

She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters: DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"

"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eye s and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"Okay," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all these eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

It felt very odd to be issuing instructions, but not nearly as odd as seeing them followed.

Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Harry saw Anna pair up with Ginny. It was nice for him to see her getting along with his friends. Predictably, Neville was left partnerless.

"You can practice with me," Harry told him. "Right-on the count of three, then-one, two, three-"

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. Harry was too quick for Neville, whose wand went spinning out of his hand, hit the ceiling in a shower of sparks and landed with a clatter on top of a bookshelf, from which Harry retrieved it with a Summoning Charm.

Glancing around, he thought he had been right to suggest they practice the basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in Disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backwards a few paces or wince as their feeble spell whooshed over them.

"Expelliarmus!" said Neville, and Harry, caught unawares, felt his wand fly out of his hand.

"I DID IT!" said Neville gleefully. "I've never done it before - I DID IT!"

"Good one!" said Harry encouragingly, deciding not to point out that in a real duel Neville's opponent was unlikely to be staring in the opposite direction with his wand held loosely at his side.

"Listen, Neville, can you take it in turns to practice with Ron and Hermione for a couple of minutes so I can walk around and see how the rest are doing?"

Harry moved off into the middle of the room. He saw Anna disarm Ginny, and he felt very proud of his sister. Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Harry did not have to look far to solve the mystery: Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.

"Sorry, Harry" said George hastily, when Harry caught his eye. "Couldn't resist."

Harry walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong.

Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchley's wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.

"Okay, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop! STOP!"

~I need a whistle~, he thought, and immediately spotted one lying on top of the nearest row of books. He caught it up and blew hard. Everyone lowered their wands.

"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement." Zacharias Smith glared at him. "Let's try again."

He moved off around the room again, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly, the general performance improved.

He avoided going near Cho and her friend for a while, but after walking twice around every other pair in the room felt he could not ignore them any longer.

"Oh no," said Cho rather wildly as he approached. "Expelliarmious! I mean, Expellimellius! I - oh, sorry, Marietta!"

Her curly-haired friend's sleeve had caught fire; Marietta extinguished it with her own wand and glared at Harry as though it was his fault.

"You made me nervous, I was doing all right before then!" Cho told Harry ruefully.

"That was quite good," Harry lied, but when she raised her eyebrows he said, "Well, no, it was lousy, but I know you can do it properly, I was watching from over there."

She laughed. Her friend Marietta looked at them rather sourly and turned away.

"Don't mind her," Cho muttered. "She doesn't really want to be here but I made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything that might upset Umbridge. You see - her mum works for the Ministry."

"What about your parents?" asked Harry.

"Well, they've forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge, too," said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. "But if they think I'm not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happened to Cedric -"

She broke off, looking rather confused, and an awkward silence fell between them; Terry Boot's wand went whizzing past Harry's ear and hit Alicia Spinnet hard on the nose.

"Well, my dad is very supportive of any anti-Ministry action!" said Luna Lovegood proudly from just behind Harry; evidently she had been eavesdropping on his conversation while Justin Finch-Fletchley attempted to disentangle himself from the robes that had flown up over his head. "He's always saying he'd believe anything of Fudge; I mean, the number of goblins Fudge has had assassinated! And of course he uses the Department of Mysteries to develop terrible poisons, which he secretly feeds to anybody who disagrees with him. And then there's his Umgubular Slashkilter —"

"Don't ask," Harry muttered to Cho as she opened her mouth, looking puzzled. She giggled.

"Hey, Harry," Hermione called from the other end of the room, "have you checked the time?"

He looked down at his watch and was shocked to see it was already ten past nine, which meant they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out of bounds. He blew his whistle; everybody stopped shouting "Expelliarmus" and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.

"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!' said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.

Angelina, however, said quickly. "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."

He pulled out the Marauder's Map again and checked it carefully for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. He let them all leave in threes and fours, watching their tiny dots anxiously to see that they returned safely to their dormitories: the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor that also led to the kitchens; the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait.

"That was really, really good, Harry" said Anna, when finally it was just her, Harry, Ron, and Hermione who were left.

"Yeah, it was!" said Ron enthusiastically, as they slipped out of the door and watched it melt back into stone behind them. "Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?"

"Only once," said Hermione, stung. "I got you loads more than you got me -"

"I did not only get you once, I got you at least three times -"

"Well, if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand -"

They argued all the way back to the common room, but Harry and Anna were not listening to them. Harry had one eye on the Marauder's Map, but he was also thinking of Cho saying he made her nervous.

"She likes you." said Anna entering the common room.

"You think so?" Harry asked.

"I know so," said Anna, "anyways I'm off to bed. Goodnight."

* * *

**A/N: Please review!**


	15. Quidditch

**A/N: Sorry for such a long wait! I am in my first year of university so school is taking up most of my time. I am not going to abandon this story I will get it done and next week I get the week off so hopefully I will get one more chapter up next week. Once again sorry for the long wait.**

Chapter 14: Quidditch

Harry felt as though he were carrying some kind of talisman inside his chest over the following two weeks, a glowing secret that supported him through Umbridge's classes and even made it possible for him to smile blandly as he looked into her horrible bulging eyes. He and the D.A. were resisting her under her very nose, doing the very thing she and the Ministry most feared, and whenever he was supposed to be reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book during her lessons he dwelled instead on satisfying memories of their most recent meetings, remembering how Neville had successfully disarmed Hermione, how Colin Creevey had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' hard effort, how Parvati Patil had produced such a good Reductor Curse that she had reduced the table carrying all the Sneakoscopes to dust. Anna was the one who surprised him the most, every time the D.A. met Anna improved that she was almost as good as everyone else and she has been only performing magic for a few months now.

He was finding it almost impossible to fix a regular night of the week for the D.A. meetings, as they had to accommodate three separate team's Quidditch practices, which were often rearranged due to bad weather conditions; but Harry was not sorry about this; he had a feeling that it was probably better to keep the timing of their meetings unpredictable. If anyone was watching them, it would be hard to make out a pattern.

Hermione and with the help of Anna soon devised a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice, because it would look suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often. She gave each of the members of the D.A. a fake Galleon (Ron became very excited when he first saw the basket and was convinced she was actually giving out gold).

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches.

"On real Galleons that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."

A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked around at all the faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted.

"Well - I thought it was a good idea," Anna said uncertainly, "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But… well, if you don't want to use them -"

"You can do a Protean Charm?" said Terry Boot asking Hermione.

"Yes," said Hermione.

"But that's… that's NEWT standard, that is," he said weakly.

"Oh," said Hermione, trying to look modest. "Oh… well… yes, I suppose it is."

"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring at Hermione with something close to wonder. "With brains like yours?"

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," said Hermione brightly, "but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So, does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forwards to collect one from the basket.

Harry looked sideways at Anna.

"You know what these remind me of?"

"No, what's that?"

"The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they've got to join him."

"Well… yes," said Anna quietly, "that is where we got the idea but you'll notice we decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our members' skin."

"Yeah… I prefer your way," said Harry, grinning, as he slipped his Galleon into his pocket. "I suppose the only danger with these is that we might accidentally spend them."

"Fat chance," said Ron, who was examining his own fake Galleon with a slightly mournful air, "I haven't got any real Galleons to confuse it with."

"Oh, Ron." said Anna.

* * *

October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy draughts that bit at exposed hands and faces. The skies and the ceiling of the Great Hall turned a pale, pearly grey, the mountains around Hogwarts were snowcapped, and the temperature in the castle dropped so low that many students wore their thick protective dragon skin gloves in the corridors between lessons.

The morning of the match dawned bright and cold. When Harry awoke he looked round at Ron's bed and saw him sitting bolt upright, his arms around his knees, staring fixedly into space.

"You all right?" said Harry.

Ron nodded but did not speak. Harry was reminded forcibly of the time Ron had accidentally put a Slug-vomiting Charm on himself; he looked just as pale and sweaty as he had done then, not to mention as reluctant to open his mouth.

"You just need some breakfast," Harry said bracingly. "C'mon."

Once they went down to the Common Room they met up with Anna.

"Morning." said Anna cheerfully, "what's wrong with him."

"Morning... uh... he's just nervous about the game but I think he just needs some breakfast and we'll be good to go." replied Harry.

"Yeah, good idea. He looks like he's going to pass out."

The Great Hall was filling up fast when they arrived, the talk louder and the mood more exuberant than usual. As they passed the Slytherin table there was an upsurge of noise. Harry looked round and saw that, in addition to the usual green and silver scarves and hats, every one of them was wearing a silver badge in the shape of what seemed to be a crown. For some reason many of them waved at Ron, laughing uproariously.

Harry tried to see what was written on the badges as he walked by, but he was too concerned to get Ron past their table quickly to linger long enough to read them.

They received a rousing welcome at the Gryffindor table, where everyone was wearing red and gold, but far from raising Ron's spirits the cheers seemed to sap the last of his morale; he collapsed on to the nearest bench looking as though he were facing his final meal.

"I must've been mental to do this," he said in a croaky whisper. "Mental."

"Don't be thick," said Anna firmly, "you're going to be fine. It's normal to be nervous."

"I'm rubbish," croaked Ron. "I'm lousy. I can't play to save my life. What was I thinking?"

"Get a grip," said Harry sternly. "Look at that save you made with your foot the other day, even Fred and George said it was brilliant."

Ron turned a tortured face to Harry.

"That was an accident," he whispered miserably. "I didn't mean to do it - I slipped off my broom when none of you were looking and when I was trying to get back on I kicked the Quaffle by accident."

"Well," said Harry, recovering quickly from this unpleasant surprise, "a few more accidents like that and the game's in the bag, isn't it?"

Hermione and Ginny sat down opposite them wearing red and gold scarves, gloves and rosettes.

"How're you feeling?" Ginny asked Ron, who was now staring into the dregs of milk at the bottom of his empty cereal bowl as though seriously considering attempting to drown himself in them.

"He's just nervous," said Harry.

"Well, that's a good sign, I never feel you perform as well in exams if you're not a bit nervous," said Hermione heartily.

"Hello," said a vague and dreamy voice from behind them.

Harry looked up: Luna Lovegood had drifted over from the Ravenclaw table. Many people were staring at her and a few were openly laughing and pointing; she had managed to procure a hat shaped like a life-size lion's head, which was perched precariously on her head.

"I'm supporting Gryffindor," said Luna, pointing unnecessarily at her hat. "Look what it does…"

She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an extremely realistic roar that made everyone in the vicinity jump.

"It's good, isn't it?" said Luna happily. "I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but there wasn't time. Anyway… good luck, Ronald!"

She drifted away. They had not quite recovered from the shock of Luna's hat before Angelina came hurrying towards them, accompanied by Katie and Alicia, whose eyebrows had mercifully been returned to normal by Madam Pomfrey.

"When you're ready," she said, "we're going to go straight down to the pitch, check out conditions and change."

"We'll be there in a bit," Harry assured her. "Ron's just got to have some breakfast."

It became clear after ten minutes, however, that Ron was not capable of eating anything more and Harry thought it best to get him down to the changing rooms. As they rose from the table, Hermione got up, too, and taking Harry's arm she drew him to one side.

"Don't let Ron see what's on those Slytherins' badges," she whispered urgently.

Harry looked questioningly at her, but she shook her head warningly; Ron had just ambled over to them, looking lost and desperate.

"Good luck, Harry," said Anna, standing up to hug her brother.

"And you, Ron -", said Anna looking t Ron then she turned backed to Harry, "are you sure he'll be fine?"

"Yeah I'm sure he'll be good to go once we get to the pitch...I hope." said Harry

Ron seemed to come to himself slightly as they walked back across the Great Hall. He touched the spot on his face where Hermione had kissed him, looking puzzled, as though he was not quite sure what had just happened. He seemed too distracted to notice much around him, but Harry cast a curious glance at the crown-shaped badges as they passed the Slytherin table, and this time he made out the words etched on to them:

Weasley Is Our King

With an unpleasant feeling that this could mean nothing good, he hurried Ron across the Entrance Hall, down the stone steps and out into the icy air.

The frosty grass crunched under their feet as they hurried down the sloping lawns towards the stadium. There was no wind at all and the sky was a uniform pearly white, which meant that visibility would be good without the drawback of direct sunlight in the eyes. Harry pointed out these encouraging factors to Ron as they walked, but he was not sure that Ron was listening.

Angelina had changed already and was talking to the rest of the team when they entered. Harry and Ron pulled on their robes (Ron attempted to do his up back-to-front for several minutes before Alicia took pity on him and went to help), then sat down to listen to the pre-match talk while the babble of voices outside grew steadily louder as the crowd came pouring out of the castle towards the pitch.

"Okay, I've only just found out the final line-up for Slytherin," said Angelina, consulting a piece of parchment. "Last year's Beaters, Derrick and Bole, have left, but it looks as though Montague's replaced them with the usual gorillas, rather than anyone who can fly particularly well. They're two blokes called Crabbe and Goyle, I don't know much about them-"

"We do," said Harry and Ron together.

"Well, they don't look bright enough to tell one end of a broom from the other," said Angelina, pocketing her parchment, "but then I was always surprised Derrick and Bole managed to find their way on to the pitch without signposts."

"Crabbe and Goyle are in the same mould," Harry assured her.

They could hear hundreds of footsteps mounting the banked benches of the spectators' stands.

Some people were singing, though Harry could not make out the words.

He was starting to feel nervous, but he knew his butterflies were as nothing compared to Ron's, who was clutching his stomach and staring straight ahead again, his jaw set and his complexion pale grey.

"It's time," said Angelina in a hushed voice, looking at her watch. "C'mon everyone… good luck."

Well the game didn't quite go as the Gryffindor they won but their team was pretty shaken up. The Slytherin's created a new song to go with their badge sand near the end of the game Harry was hit with a Bludger.

Luckily he was only five or six feet above the ground, having dived so low to catch the Snitch, but he was winded all the same as he landed flat on his back on the frozen pitch. He heard Madam Hooch's shrill whistle, an uproar in the stands compounded of catcalls, angry yells and jeering, a thud, then Angelina's frantic voice.

"Are you all right?"

"Course I am," said Harry grimly, taking her hand and allowing her to pull him to his feet.

Madam Hooch was zooming towards one of the Slytherin players above him, though he could not see who it was from this angle.

"It was that thug Crabbe," said Angelina angrily, "he whacked the Bludger at you the moment he saw you'd got the Snitch - but we won, Harry, we won!"

Harry heard a snort from behind him and turned around, still holding the Snitch tightly in his hand: Draco Malfoy had landed close by. White-faced with fury, he was still managing to sneer.

"Saved Weasley's neck, haven't you?" he said to Harry. "I've never seen a worse Keeper… but then he was born in a bin… did you like my lyrics, Potter?"

Harry didn't answer. He turned away to meet the rest of the team who were now landing one by one, yelling and punching the air in triumph; all except Ron, who had dismounted from his broom over by the goalposts and seemed to be making his way slowly back to the changing rooms alone.

"We wanted to write another couple of verses!" Malfoy called, as Katie and Alicia hugged Harry. "But we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly - we wanted to sing about his mother, see-"

"Talk about sour grapes," said Angelina, casting Malfoy a disgusted look.

"- we couldn't fit in useless loser either - for his father, you know -"

Fred and George had realized what Malfoy was talking about. Halfway through shaking Harry's hand, they stiffened, looking round at Malfoy.

"Leave it!" said Angelina at once, taking Fred by the arm. "Leave it, Fred, let him yell, he's just sore he lost, the jumped-up little -"

"- but you like the Weasleys, don't you, Potter?" said Malfoy, sneering. "Spend holidays there and everything, don't you? Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by Muggles, even the Weasleys' hovel smells okay -"

Harry grabbed hold of George.

Meanwhile, it was taking the combined efforts of Angelina, Alicia and Katie to stop Fred leaping on Malfoy, who was laughing openly. Harry looked around for Madam Hooch, but she was still berating Crabbe for his illegal Bludger attack.

"Or perhaps," said Malfoy, leering as he backed away, "you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasleys pigsty reminds you of it —"

Harry was not aware of releasing George, all he knew was that a second later both of them were sprinting towards Malfoy. He had completely forgotten that all the teachers were watching: all he wanted to do was cause Malfoy as much pain as possible; with no time to draw out his wand, he merely drew back the fist clutching the Snitch and sank it as hard as he could into Malfoys stomach - he did this when Anna and Hermione finally came down to the filed.

"Harry! HARRY! GEORGE! NO"

He could hear girls' voices screaming, Malfoy yelling, George swearing, a whistle blowing and the bellowing of the crowd around him, but he did not care. He felt arms try to hold him back and he had a feeling that this person was Anna. It was not until somebody in the vicinity yelled "Impedimenta!" and he was knocked over backwards by the force of the spell, did he abandon the attempt to punch every inch of Malfoy he could reach.

"What do you think you're doing?" screamed Madam Hooch, as Harry leapt to his feet. It seemed to have been her who had hit him with the Impediment Jinx; she was holding her whistle in one hand and a wand in the other; her broom lay abandoned several feet away. Malfoy was curled up on the ground, whimpering and moaning, his nose bloody; George was sporting a swollen lip; Fred was still being forcibly restrained by the three Chasers, and Crabbe was cackling in the background. He looked over to find Anna and she looked fine except for the look of disappointment on her face.

"I've never seen behavior like it - back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now."

Harry and George turned on their heels and marched off the pitch, both panting, neither saying a word to the other. The howling and jeering of the crowd grew fainter and fainter until they reached the Entrance Hall, where they could hear nothing except the sound of their own footsteps. Harry became aware that something was still struggling in his right hand, the knuckles of which he had bruised against Malfoy's jaw. Looking down, he saw the Snitch's silver wings protruding from between his fingers, struggling for release.

They had barely reached the door of Professor McGonagall's office when she came marching along the corridor behind them. She was wearing a Gryffindor scarf, but tore it from her throat with shaking hands as she strode towards them, looking livid.

"In!" she said furiously, pointing to the door. Harry and George entered. She strode around behind her desk and faced them, quivering with rage as she threw the Gryffindor scarf aside on to the floor.

"Well?" she said. "I have never seen such a disgraceful exhibition. Two on one! Explain yourselves!"

"Malfoy provoked us," said Harry stiffly.

"Provoked you?" shouted Professor McGonagall, slamming a fist on to her desk so that her tartan tin slid sideways off it and burst open, littering the floor with Ginger Newts. "He'd just lost, hadn't he? Of course he wanted to provoke you! But what on earth he can have said that justified what you two —"

"He insulted my parents," snarled George. "And Harry's mother."

"But instead of leaving it to Madam Hooch to sort out, you two decided to give an exhibition of Muggle dueling, did you?" bellowed Professor McGonagall. "Have you any idea what you've- ?"

"Hem, hem."

Harry and George both wheeled round. Dolores Umbridge was standing in the doorway wrapped in a green tweed cloak that greatly enhanced her resemblance to a giant toad, and was smiling in the horrible, sickly, ominous way that Harry had come to associate with imminent misery.

"May I help, Professor McGonagall?" asked Professor Umbridge in her most poisonously sweet voice.

Blood rushed into Professor McGonagall's face.

"Help?" she repeated, in a constricted voice. "What do you mean, help?"

Professor Umbridge moved forwards into the office, still smiling her sickly smile.

"Why, I thought you might be grateful for a little extra authority"

Harry would not have been surprised to see sparks fly from Professor McGonagall's nostrils.

"You thought wrong," she said, turning her back on Umbridge.

"Now, you two had better listen closely. I do not care what provocation Malfoy offered you, I do not care if he insulted every family member you possess, your behavior was disgusting and I am giving each of you a week's worth of detentions! Do not look at me like that, Potter, you deserve it! And if either of you ever -"

"Hem, hem."

Professor McGonagall closed her eyes as though praying for patience as she turned her face towards Professor Umbridge again.

"Yes?"

"I think they deserve rather more than detentions," said Umbridge, smiling still more broadly.

Professor McGonagall's eyes flew open.

"But unfortunately" she said, with an attempt at a reciprocal smile that made her look as though she had lockjaw, "it is what I think that counts, as they are in my House, Dolores."

"Well, actually, Minerva," simpered Professor Umbridge, "I think you'll find that what I think does count. Now, where is it? Cornelius just sent it… I mean," she gave a false little laugh as she rummaged in her handbag, "the Minister just sent it… ah yes…"

She had pulled out a piece of parchment which she now unfurled, clearing her throat fussily before starting to read what it said.

"Hem, hem… 'Educational Decree Number Twenty-five'."

"Not another one!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall violently.

"Well, yes," said Umbridge, still smiling. "As a matter of fact, Minerva, it was you who made me see that we needed a further amendment… you remember how you overrode me, when I was unwilling to allow the Gryffindor Quidditch team to re-form? How you took the case to Dumbledore, who insisted that the team be allowed to play? Well, now, I couldn't have that. I contacted the Minister at once, and he quite agreed with me that the High Inquisitor has to have the power to strip pupils of privileges, or she - that is to say, I - would have less authority than common teachers! And you see now, don't you, Minerva, how right I was in attempting to stop the Gryffindor team re-forming? Dreadful tempers…anyway, I was reading out our amendment… hem, hem… 'High Inquisitor will henceforth have supreme authority over all punishments, sanctions and removal of privileges pertaining to the students of Hogwarts, and the power to alter such punishments, sanctions and removals of privileges as may have been ordered by other staff members. Signed, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, Order of Merlin First Class, etc., etc.'"

She rolled up the parchment and put it back into her handbag, still smiling.

"So… I really think I will have to ban these two from playing Quidditch ever again," she said, looking from Harry to George and back again.

Harry felt the Snitch fluttering madly in his hand.

"Ban us?" he said, and his voice sounded strangely distant. "From playing… ever again?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter, I think a lifelong ban ought to do the trick," said Umbridge, her smile widening still further as she watched him struggle to comprehend what she had said. "You and Mr. Weasley here. And I think, to be safe, this young man's twin ought to be stopped, too if his teammates had not restrained him, I feel sure he would have attacked young Mr. Malfoy as well. I will want their broomsticks confiscated, of course; I shall keep them safely in my office, to make sure there is no infringement of my ban. But I am not unreasonable, Professor McGonagall," she continued, turning back to Professor McGonagall who was now standing as still as though carved from ice, staring at her. "The rest of the team can continue playing, I saw no signs of violence from any of them. Well… good afternoon to you."

And with a look of the utmost satisfaction, Umbridge left the room, leaving a horrified silence in her wake.

* * *

"She banned you! From playing forever! How can she do something like that? Ug... this makes me so mad I could go up to her and punch her in the face!" cried Anna.

"Please do," said Harry, "and yeah banned for life. At least you seemed to have taken this better than Angelina did she looked murderous. One look from her nearly killed us."

"Well it would serve you right! What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't"

"I though as much."

Hermione and Ron finally found Harry and Anna and Hermione looked too happy for what occurred just hours before.

"This is all my fault -" said Ron.

"You didn't make me punch Malfoy," said Harry angrily.

"- if I wasn't so terrible at Quidditch -"

"- it's got nothing to do with that."

"- it was that song that wound me up -"

"- it would've wound anyone up."

Hermione got up and walked to the window, away from the argument, watching the snow swirling down against the pane.

"Look, drop it, will you!" Harry burst out. "It's bad enough, without you blaming yourself for everything!"

Ron said nothing but sat gazing miserably at the damp hem of his robes. After a while he said in a dull voice, "This is the worst I've ever felt in my life."

"Join the club," said Harry bitterly.

"Well," said Hermione, her voice trembling slightly. "I can think of one thing that might cheer you both up."

"Oh yeah?" said Harry skeptically.

"Yeah," said Hermione, turning away from the pitch-black, snow-flecked window, a broad smile spreading across her face. "Hagrid's back."

* * *

**A/N: Please review!**


	16. Hagrid's Tale

Chapter 15: Hagrid's Tale

Harry sprinted up to the boys' dormitories to fetch the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map from his trunk; he was so quick that he and Ron were ready to leave at least five minutes before Hermione and Anne hurried back down from the girls' dormitories, wearing scarfs, gloves and the knobby elf hats Hermione had knitted.

"Well, it's cold out there!" Hermione said defensively, as Ron clicked his tongue impatiently.

They crept through the portrait hole and covered themselves hastily in the Cloak - Ron had grown so much he now needed to crouch to prevent his feet showing then, moving slowly and cautiously, they proceeded down the many staircases, pausing at intervals to check on the map for signs of Filch or Mrs. Norris. They were lucky; they saw nobody but Nearly Headless Nick, who was gliding along absent-mindedly humming something that sounded horribly like Weasley is our King.

They crept across the Entrance Hall and out into the silent, snowy grounds. With a great leap of his heart, Harry saw little golden squares of light ahead and smoke coiling up from Hagrid's chimney. He set off at a quick march, the other two jostling and bumping along behind him. They crunched excitedly through the thickening snow until at last they reached the wooden front door. When Harry raised his fist and knocked three times, a dog started barking frantically inside.

"Hagrid, its us!" Harry called through the keyhole.

"Shoulda known!" said a gruff voice.

They beamed at each other under the Cloak; they could tell by Hagrid's voice that he was pleased. "Bin home three seconds… out the way, Fang… out the way, yeh dozy dog…"

The bolt was drawn back, the door creaked open and Hagrid's head appeared in the gap.

Hermione screamed.

"Merlin's beard, keep it down!" said Hagrid hastily, staring wildly over their heads. "Under that Cloak, are yeh? Well, get in, get in!"

"I'm sorry!" Hermione gasped, as the three of them squeezed past Hagrid into the house and pulled the Cloak off themselves so he could see them. "I just - oh, Hagrid!"

"It's nuthin', it's nuthin'!" said Hagrid hastily, shutting the door behind them and hurrying to close all the curtains, but Hermione continued to gaze up at him in horror.

Hagrid's hair was matted with congealed blood and his left eye had been reduced to a puffy slit amid a mass of purple and black bruising. There were many cuts on his face and hands, some of them still bleeding, and he was moving gingerly, which made Harry suspect broken ribs.

It was obvious that he had only just got home; a thick black traveling cloak lay over the back of a chair and a haversack large enough to carry several small children leaned against the wall inside the door. Hagrid himself, twice the size of a normal man, was now limping over to the fire and placing a copper kettle over it.

"What happened to you?" Harry demanded, while Fang danced around them all, trying to lick their faces.

"Told yeh, nuthin'," said Hagrid firmly. "Want a cuppa?"

"Come off it," said Ron, "you're in a right state!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, I'm fine," said Hagrid, straightening up and turning to beam at them all, but wincing. "Blimey, it's good ter see yeh again - had good summers, did yeh? And who are yeh?"

"Oh, I'm Anne. Harry's sister." said Anne.

"I knew 'Arry had a sister, but she went missing. Nice to meet yeh Anne."

"Same to you Hagrid."

"Hagrid, you've been attacked!" said Ron.

"Fer the las' time, it's nuthin'!" said Hagrid firmly.

"Would you say it was nothing if one of us turned up with a pound of mince instead of a face?" Ron demanded.

"You ought to go and see Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid," said Anne anxiously, "some of those cuts look nasty."

"I'm dealin' with it, all righ'?" said Hagrid repressively.

He walked across to the enormous wooden table that stood in the middle of his cabin and twitched aside a tea towel that had been lying on it. Underneath was a raw, bloody, green-tinged steak slightly larger than the average car tire.

"You're not going to eat that, are you, Hagrid?" said Hermione, leaning in for a closer look. "It looks poisonous."

"It's s'posed ter look like that, it's dragon meat," Hagrid said. "An' I didn' get it ter eat."

He picked up the steak and slapped it over the left side of his face. Greenish blood trickled down into his beard as he gave a soft moan of satisfaction.

"Tha's better. It helps with the stingin', yeh know."

"So, are you going to tell us what's happened to you?" Harry asked.

"Can't, Harry. Top secret. More'n me job's worth ter tell yeh that."

"Did the giants beat you up, Hagrid?" asked Hermione quietly.

Hagrid's fingers slipped on the dragon steak and it slid squelchily on to his chest.

"Giants?" said Hagrid, catching the steak before it reached his belt and slapping it back over his face, "who said anythin' abou' giants? Who yeh bin talkin' to? Who's told yeh what I've - who's said I've bin - eh?"

"We guessed," said Hermione apologetically.

"Oh, yeh did, did yeh?" said Hagrid, surveying her sternly with the eye that was not hidden by the steak.

"It was kind of… obvious," said Ron. Harry and Anne both nodded.

Hagrid glared at them, then snorted, threw the steak back on to the table and strode over to the kettle, which was now whistling.

"Never known kids like you three fer knowin' more'n yeh oughta," he muttered, splashing boiling water into three of his bucket-shaped mugs. "An' I'm not complimentin' yeh, neither. Nosy, some'd call it. Interferin'."

But his beard twitched.

"So you have been to look for giants?" said Anne, grinning as he sat down at the table.

Hagrid set tea in front of each of them, sat down, picked up his steak again and slapped it back over his face.

"Yeah, all righ'," he grunted, "I have."

"And you found them?" said Hermione in a hushed voice.

"Well, they're not that difficult ter find, ter be honest," said Hagrid. "Pretty big, see."

"Where are they?" said Harry.

"Mountains," said Hagrid unhelpfully.

"So why don't Muggles -?"

"They do," said Hagrid darkly. "On'y their deaths are always put down ter mountaineerin' accidents, aren' they?"

He adjusted the steak a little so that it covered the worst of the bruising.

"Come on, Hagrid, tell us what you've been up to!" said Ron. "Tell us about being attacked by the giants and Harry can tell you about being attacked by the Dementors -"

Hagrid choked in his mug and dropped his steak at the same time; a large quantity of spit, tea and dragon blood was sprayed over the table as Hagrid coughed and spluttered and the steak slid, with a soft splat, on to the floor.

"Whadda yeh mean, attacked by Dementors?" growled Hagrid.

"Didn't you know?" Hermione asked him, wide-eyed.

"I don' know anythin' that's bin happenin' since I left. I was on a secret mission, wasn' I, didn' wan' owls followin' me all over the place - ruddy Dementors! Yeh're not serious?"

"Yeah, I am, they turned up in Little Whinging and attacked my cousin and me, and then the Ministry of Magic expelled me -"

"WHAT?"

"- and I had to go to a hearing and everything, but tell us about the giants first."

"You were expelled!"

"Tell us about your summer and I'll tell you about mine."

Hagrid glared at him through his one open eye. Harry looked right back, an expression of innocent determination on his face.

"Oh, all righ'," Hagrid said in a resigned voice.

He bent down and tugged the dragon steak out of Fang's mouth.

"Oh, Hagrid, don't, it's not hygien—" Hermione began, but Hagrid had already slapped the meat back over his swollen eye.

He took another fortifying gulp of tea, then said, "Well, we set off righ' after term ended -"

"Madame Maxime went with you, then?" Hermione interjected.

"Yeah, tha's righ'," said Hagrid, and a softened expression appeared on the few inches of face that were not obscured by beard or green steak.

"Yeah, it was jus' the pair of us. An' I'll tell yeh this, she's not afraid of roughin' it, Olympe. Yeh know, she's a fine, well-dressed woman, an' knowin' where we was goin' I wondered 'ow she'd feel abou' clamberin' over boulders an' sleepin' in caves an' tha', bu' she never complained once."

"You knew where you were going?" Harry repeated. "You knew where the giants were?"

"Well, Dumbledore knew, an' he told us," said Hagrid.

"Are they hidden?" asked Anne. "Is it a secret, where they are?"

"Not really" said Hagrid, shaking his shaggy head. "It's jus' that mos' wizards aren' bothered where they are,'s long as it's a good long way away. But where they are's very difficult ter get ter, fer humans anyway, so we needed Dumbledore's instructions. Took us abou' a month ter get there -"

"A month?" said Ron, as though he had never heard of a journey lasting such a ridiculously long time. "But - why couldn't you just grab a Portkey or something?"

There was an odd expression in Hagrid's unobscured eye as he surveyed Ron; it was almost pitying.

"We're bein' watched, Ron," he said gruffly.

"What d'you mean?"

"Yeh don' understand," said Hagrid. "The Ministry's keepin' an eye on Dumbledore an' anyone they reckon's in league with 'im, an' -"

"We know about that," said Harry quickly keen to hear the rest of Hagrid's story, "we know about the Ministry watching Dumbledore -"

"So you couldn't use magic to get there?" asked Ron, looking thunderstruck, "you had to act like Muggles all the way?"

"Well, not exactly all the way" said Hagrid cagily. "We jus' had ter be careful, 'cause Olympe an' me, we stick out a bit —"

Ron made a stifled noise somewhere between a snort and a sniff and hastily took a gulp of tea.

"- so we're not hard ter follow. We was pretendin' we was goin' on holiday together, so we got inter France an' we made like we was headin' fer where Olympes school is, 'cause we knew we was bein' tailed by someone from the Ministry. We had to go slow, 'cause I'm not really s'posed ter use magic an' we knew the Ministry'd be lookin' fer a reason ter run us in. But we managed ter give the berk tailin' us the slip round abou' Dee-John —"

"Ooooh, Dijon?" said Hermione excitedly. "I've been there on holiday, did you see -?"

She fell silent at the look on Ron's face.

"We chanced a bit o' magic after that an' it wasn' a bad journey. Ran inter a couple o' mad trolls on the Polish border an' I had a sligh' disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk, bu' apart from tha' couldn't'a bin smoother. An' then we reached the place, an' we started trekkin' up through the mountains, lookin' fer signs of 'em… We had ter lay off the magic once we got near 'em. Partly 'cause they don' like wizards an' we didn' want ter put their backs up too soon, an' partly 'cause Dumbledore had warned us You- Know-Who was bound ter be after the giants an' all. Said it was odds on he'd sent a messenger off ter them already. Told us ter be very careful of drawin' attention ter ourselves as we got nearer in case there was Death Eaters around."

Hagrid paused for a long draught of tea.

"Go on!" said Harry urgently.

"Found 'em," said Hagrid baldly. "Went over a ridge one nigh' an' there they was, spread ou' underneath us. Little fires burnin' below an' huge shadows… it was like watchin' bits o' the mountain movin'."

"How big are they?" asked Anne in a hushed voice.

"Bout twenty feet," said Hagrid casually. "Some o' the bigger ones mighta bin twenty-five."

"And how many were there?" asked Harry.

"I reckon abou' seventy or eighty," said Hagrid.

"Is that all?" said Hermione.

"Yep," said Hagrid sadly, "eighty left, an' there was loads once, musta bin a hundred diff'rent tribes from all over the world. Bu' they've bin dyin' out fer ages. Wizards killed a few, o' course, bu' mostly they killed each other, an' now they're dyin' out faster than ever. They're not made ter live bunched up together like tha'. Dumbledore says it's our fault, it was the wizards who forced 'em to go an' made 'em live a good long way from us an' they had no choice bu' ter stick together fer their own protection."

"So," said Harry, "you saw them and then what?"

"Well, we waited till morning, didn' want ter go sneakin' up on 'em in the dark, fer our own safety," said Hagrid. "Bout three in the mornin' they fell asleep jus' where they was sittin'. We didn' dare sleep. Fer one thing, we wanted ter make sure none of 'em woke up an' came up where we were, an' fer another, the snorin' was unbelievable. Caused an avalanche near mornin'. Anyway, once it was light we wen' down ter see 'em."

"Just like that?" said Ron, looking awestruck. "You just walked right into a giant camp?"

"Well, Dumbledore'd told us how ter do it," said Hagrid. "Give the Gurg gifts, show some respect, yeh know."

"Give the what gifts?" asked Harry.

"Oh, the Gurg - means the chief."

"How could you tell which one was the Gurg?" asked Ron.

Hagrid grunted in amusement.

"No problem," he said. "He was the biggest, the ugliest an' the laziest.

Sittin' there waitin' ter bevbrought food by the others. Dead goats an' such like. Name o' Karkus. I'd put him at twenty-two, twenty-three feet an' the weight o' a couple o' bull elephants. Skin like rhino hide an' all."

"And you just walked up to him?" said Anne breathlessly.

"Well… down ter him, where he was lyin' in the valley. They was in this dip between four pretty high mountains, see, beside a mountain lake, an' Karkus was lyin' by the lake roarin' at the others ter feed him an' his wife. Olympe an' I went down the mountainside -"

"But didn't they try and kill you when they saw you?" asked Ron incredulously.

"It was def'nitely on some o' their minds," said Hagrid, shrugging, "but we did what Dumbledore told us ter do, which was ter hold our gift up high an' keep our eyes on the Gurg an' ignore the others. So tha's what we did. An' the rest of 'em went quiet an' watched us pass an' we got right up ter Karkus's feet an' we bowed an' put our present down in front o' him."

"What do you give a giant?" asked Ron eagerly. "Food?"

"Nah, he can get food all righ' fer himself," said Hagrid. "We took him magic. Giants like magic, jus' don' like us usin' it against 'em. Anyway, that firs' day we gave 'im a branch o' Gubraithian fire."

Hermione said, "Wow!" softly, but Harry, Ron, and Anne all frowned in puzzlement.

"A branch of -?"

"Everlasting fire," said Hermione irritably, "you ought to know that by now. Professor Flitwick's mentioned it at least twice in class!"

"Well, anyway," said Hagrid quickly, intervening before Ron could answer back, "Dumbledore'd bewitched this branch to burn fer evermore, which isn' somethin' any wizard could do, an' so I lies it down in the snow by Karkus's feet and says, 'A gift to the Gurg of the giants from Albus Dumbledore, who sends his respectful greetings.'"

"And what did Karkus say?" asked Harry eagerly.

"Nothin'," said Hagrid. "Didn' speak English."

"You're kidding!"

"Didn' matter," said Hagrid imperturbably, "Dumbledore had warned us tha' migh' happen. Karkus knew enough to yell fer a couple o' giants who knew our lingo an' they translated fer us."

"And did he like the present?" asked Ron.

"Oh yeah, it went down a storm once they understood what it was," said Hagrid, turning his dragon steak over to press the cooler side to his swollen eye. "Very pleased. So then I said, Dumbledore asks the Gurg to speak with his messenger when he returns tomorrow with another gift."

"Why couldn't you speak to them that day?" asked Anne.

"Dumbledore wanted us ter take it very slow," said Hagrid. "Let 'em see we kept our promises. We'll come back tomorrow with another present, an' then we do come back with another present - gives a good impression, see? An' gives them time ter test out the firs' present an' find out it's a good one, an' get 'em eager fer more. In any case, giants like Karkus - overload 'em with information an' they'll kill yeh jus' to simplify things. So we bowed outta the way an' went off an' found ourselves a nice little cave ter spend that night in an' the followin' mornin' we went back an' this time we found Karkus sittin' up waitin' fer us lookin' all eager."

"And you talked to him?"

"Oh yeah. Firs' we presented him with a nice battle helmet -goblin-made an' indestructible, yeh know - an' then we sat down an' we talked."

"What did he say?"

"Not much," said Hagrid. "Listened mostly. Bu' there were good signs. He'd heard o' Dumbledore, heard he'd argued against the killin' o' the last giants in Britain. Karkus seemed ter be quite int'rested in what Dumbledore had ter say. An' a few o' the others, 'specially the ones who had some English, they gathered round an' listened too. We were hopeful when we left that day. Promised ter come back next mornin' with another present…Bu' that night it all wen' wrong."

"What d'you mean?" said Harry quickly.

"Well, like I say, they're not meant ter live together, giants," said Hagrid sadly. "Not in big groups like that. They can' help themselves, they half kill each other every few weeks. The men fight each other an' the women fight each other; the remnants of the old tribes fight each other, an' that's even without squabbles over food an' the best fires an' sleepin' spots. Yeh'd think, seein' as how their whole race is abou' finished, they'd lay off each other, bu'…" Hagrid sighed deeply. "That night a fight broke out, we saw it from the mouth of our cave, lookin' down on the valley. Went on fer hours, yeh wouldn' believe the noise. An' when the sun came up the snow was scarlet an' his head was lyin' at the bottom o' the lake."

"Whose head?" gasped Hermione.

"Karkus's," said Hagrid heavily. "There was a new Gurg, Golgomath." He sighed deeply.

"Well, we hadn' bargained on a new Gurg two days after we'd made friendly contact with the firs' one, an' we had a funny feelin' Golgomath wouldn' be so keen ter listen to us, bu' we had ter try."

"You went to speak to him?" asked Ron incredulously. "After you'd watched him rip off another giant's head?"

"Course we did," said Hagrid, "we hadn' gone all that way ter give up after two days! We wen' down with the next present we'd meant ter give ter Karkus. I knew it was no go before I'd opened me mouth. He was sitting there wearin' Karkus's helmet, leerin' at us as we got nearer. He's massive, one o' the biggest ones there. Black hair an' matchin' teeth an' a necklace o' bones. Human-lookin' bones, some of 'em. Well, I gave it a go - held out a great roll o' dragon skin - an' said, 'gift fer the Gurg of the giants —' Nex' thing I knew, I was hangin' upside-down in the air by me feet, two of his mates had grabbed me."

Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth.

"How did you get out of that?" asked Harry.

"Wouldn'ta done if Olympe hadn' bin there," said Hagrid. "She pulled out her wand an' did some o' the fastes' spellwork I've ever seen. Ruddy marvellous. Hit the two holdin' me right in the eyes with Conjunctivitus Curses an' they dropped me straightaway - bu' we were in trouble then, 'cause we'd used magic against 'em, an' that's what giants hate abou' wizards. We had ter leg it an' we knew there was no way we was going ter be able ter march inter the camp again."

"Blimey, Hagrid," said Ron quietly.

"So, how come it's taken you so long to get home if you were only there for three days?" asked Hermione.

"We didn' leave after three days!" said Hagrid, looking outraged. "Dumbledore was relyin' on us!"

"But you've just said there was no way you could go back!"

"Not by daylight we couldn', no. We just had ter rethink a bit. Spent a couple o' days lyin' low up in the cave an' watchin'. An' wha' we saw wasn' good."

"Did he rip off more heads?" asked Hermione, sounding squeamish.

"No," said Hagrid, "I wish he had."

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean we soon found out he didn' object ter all wizards - just us."

"Death Eaters?" said Harry quickly.

"Yep," said Hagrid darkly. "Couple of 'em were visitin' him ev'ry day, bringin' gifts ter the Gurg, an' he wasn' dangling them upside-down."

"How d'you know they were Death Eaters?" said Ron.

"Because I recognized one of 'em," Hagrid growled. "Macnair, remember him? Bloke they sent ter kill Buckbeak? Maniac, he is. Likes killin' as much as Golgomath; no wonder they were gettin' on so well."

"So Macnairs persuaded the giants to join You-Know-Who?" said Hermione desperately.

"Hold yer Hippogriffs, I haven' finished me story yet!" said Hagrid indignantly, who, considering he had not wanted to tell them anything in the first place, now seemed to be rather enjoying himself.

"Me an' Olympe talked it over an' we agreed, jus' 'cause the Gurg looked like favorin' You-Know-Who didn' mean all of 'em would. We had ter try an' persuade some o' the others, the ones who hadn' wanted Golgomath as Gurg."

"How could you tell which ones they were?" asked Ron.

"Well, they were the ones bein' beaten to a pulp, weren' they?" said Hagrid patiently. "The ones with any sense were keepin' outta Golgomath's way, hidin' out in caves roun' the gully jus' like we were. So we decided we'd go pokin' round the caves by night an' see if we couldn' persuade a few o' them."

"You went poking around dark caves looking for giants?" said Ron, with awed respect in his voice.

"Well, it wasn' the giants who worried us most," said Hagrid. "We were more concerned abou' the Death Eaters. Dumbledore had told us before we wen' not ter tangle with 'em if we could avoid it, an' the trouble was they knew we was around — 'spect Golgomath told 'em abou' us. At night, when the giants were sleepin' an' we wanted ter be creepin' inter the caves, Macnair an' the other one were sneakin' round the mountains lookin' fer us. I was hard put to stop Olympe jumpin' out at 'em," said Hagrid, the corners of his mouth lifting his wild beard, "she was rarin' ter attack 'em… she's somethin' when she's roused, Olympe… fiery, yeh know… 'spect it's the French in her…"

Hagrid gazed misty-eyed into the fire. Harry allowed him thirty seconds of reminiscence before clearing his throat loudly.

"So, what happened? Did you ever get near any of the other giants?"

"What? Oh… oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, on the third night after Karkus was killed we crept outta the cave we'd bin hidin' in an' headed back down inter the gully, keepin' our eyes skinned fer the Death Eaters. Got inside a few o' the caves, no go - then, in abou' the sixth one, we found three giants hidin'."

"Cave must've been cramped," said Ron.

"Wasn' room ter swing a Kneazle," said Hagrid.

"Didn't they attack you when they saw you?" asked Hermione.

"Probably woulda done if they'd bin in any condition," said Hagrid, "but they was badly hurt, all three o' them; Golgomath's lot had beaten 'em unconscious; they'd woken up an' crawled inter the nearest shelter they could find. Anyway, one o' them had a bit of English an' 'e translated fer the others, an' what we had ter say didn' seem ter go down too badly. So we kep' goin' back, visitin' the wounded… I reckon we had abou' six or seven o' them convinced at one poin'."

"Six or seven?" said Ron eagerly. "Well that's not bad - are they going to come over here and start fighting You-Know-Who with us?"

But Anne said, "What do you mean 'one point', Hagrid?"

Hagrid looked at her sadly.

"Golgomath's lot raided the caves. The ones tha' survived didn' wan' no more ter to do with us after that."

"So… so there aren't any giants coming?" said Ron, looking disappointed.

"Nope," said Hagrid, heaving a deep sigh as he turned over his steak and applied the cooler side to his face, "but we did wha' we meant ter do, we g ave 'em Dumbledore's message an' some o' them heard it an' I spect some o' them'll remember it. Jus' maybe, them that don' want ter stay around Golgomath'll move outta the mountains, an' there's gotta be a chance they'll remember Dumbledore's friendly to 'em… could be they'll come."

Snow was filling up the window now. Harry became aware that the knees of his robes were soaked through: Fang was drooling with his head in Harry's lap.

"Hagrid?" said Hermione quietly after a while.

"Mmm?"

"Did you… was there any sign of… did you hear anything about your… your… mother while you were there?"

Hagrid's unobscured eye rested upon her and Hermione looked rather scared.

"I'm sorry… I… forget it -"

"Dead," Hagrid grunted. "Died years ago. They told me."

"Oh… I'm… I'm really sorry" said Anne in a very small voice. Hagrid shrugged his massive shoulders.

"No need," he said shortly. "Can't remember her much. Wasn' a great mother."

They were silent again. Anne glanced nervously at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, plainly wanting them to speak.

"But you still haven't explained how you got in this state, Hagrid," Ron said, gesturing towards Hagrid's bloodstained face.

"Or why you're back so late," said Harry. "Sirius says Madame Maxime got back ages ago -"

"Who attacked you?" said Ron.

"I haven' bin attacked!" said Hagrid emphatically. "I -"

But the rest of his words were drowned in a sudden outbreak of rapping on the door. Hermione gasped; her mug slipped through her fingers and smashed on the floor; Fang yelped. All four of them stared at the window beside the doorway. The shadow of somebody small and squat rippled across the thin curtain.

"It's her!" Ron whispered.

"Get under here!" Harry said quickly; seizing the Invisibility Cloak, he whirled it over himself, Anne, and Hermione while Ron tore around the table and dived under the Cloak as well. Huddled together, they backed away into a corner. Fang was barking madly at the door. Hagrid looked thoroughly confused.

"Hagrid, hide our mugs!"

Hagrid seized their mugs and shoved them under the cushion in Fang's basket. Fang was now leaping up at the door; Hagrid pushed him out of the way with his foot and pulled it open.

Professor Umbridge was standing in the doorway wearing her green tweed cloak and a matching hat with earflaps.

Lips pursed, she leaned back so as to see Hagrid's face; she barely reached his navel.

"So," she said slowly and loudly, as though speaking to somebody deaf. "You're Hagrid, are you?"

Without waiting for an answer she strolled into the room, her bulging eyes rolling in every direction.

"Get away," she snapped, waving her handbag at Fang, who had bounded up to her and was attempting to lick her face.

"Er - I don' want ter be rude," said Hagrid, staring at her, "but who the ruddy hell are you?"

"My name is Dolores Umbridge."

Her eyes were sweeping the cabin. Twice they stared directly into the corner where Harry stood, sandwiched between Ron and Hermione.

"Dolores Umbridge?" Hagrid said, sounding thoroughly confused. "I thought you were one o' them Ministry - don' you work with Fudge?"

"I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, yes," said Umbridge, now pacing around the cabin, taking in every tiny detail within, from the haversack against the wall to the abandoned traveling cloak. "I am now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher -"

"Tha's brave of yeh," said Hagrid, "there's not many'd take tha' job any more."

"- and Hogwarts High Inquisitor," said Umbridge, giving no sign that she had heard him.

"Wha's that?" said Hagrid, frowning.

"Precisely what I was going to ask," said Umbridge, pointing at the broken shards of china on the floor that had been Hermione's mug.

"Oh," said Hagrid, with a most unhelpful glance towards the corner where Harry, Ron and Hermione stood hidden, oh, tha' was… was Fang. He broke a mug. So I had ter use this one instead."

Hagrid pointed to the mug from which he had been drinking, one hand still clamped over the dragon steak pressed to his eye. Umbridge stood facing him now, taking in every detail of his appearance instead of the cabin's.

"I heard voices," she said quietly.

"I was talkin' ter Fang," said Hagrid stoutly.

"And was he talking back to you?"

"Well… in a manner o' speakin'," said Hagrid, looking uncomfortable. "I sometimes say Fang's near enough human -"

"There are three sets of footprints in the snow leading from the castle doors to your cabin," said Umbridge sleekly.

Hermione gasped; Harry clapped a hand over her mouth.

Luckily, Fang was sniffing loudly around the hem of Professor Umbridge's robes and she did not appear to have heard.

"Well, I on'y jus' got back," said Hagrid, waving an enormous hand at the haversack. "Maybe someone came ter call earlier an' I missed 'em."

"There are no footsteps leading away from your cabin door."

"Well, I… I don' know why that'd be…" said Hagrid, tugging nervously at his beard and again glancing towards the corner where Harry, Ron, Anne and Hermione stood, as though asking for help.

"Erm…"

Umbridge wheeled round and strode the length of the cabin, looking around carefully. She bent and peered under the bed. She opened Hagrid's cupboards. She passed within two inches of where Harry, Ron, Anne and Hermione stood pressed against the wall; Harry actually pulled in his stomach as she walked by. After looking carefully inside the enormous cauldron Hagrid used for cooking, she wheeled round again and said, "What has happened to you? How did you sustain those injuries?"

Hagrid hastily removed the dragon steak from his face, which in Harrys opinion was a mistake, because the black and purple bruising all around his eye was now clearly visible, not to mention the large amount of fresh and congealed blood on his face. "Oh, I… had a bit of an accident," he said lamely.

"What sort of accident?"

"I - I tripped."

"You tripped," she repeated coolly.

"Yeah, tha's right. Over… over a friend's broomstick. I don' fly, meself. Well, look at the size o' me, I don' reckon there's a broomstick that'd hold me. Friend o' mine breeds Abraxan horses, I dunno if you've ever seen 'em, big beasts, winged, yeh know, I've had a bit of a ride on one o' them an' it was -"

"Where have you been?" asked Umbridge, cutting coolly through Hagrid's babbling.

"Where've I -?"

"Been, yes," she said. "Term started two months ago. Another teacher has had to cover your classes. None of your colleagues has been able to give me any information as to your whereabouts. You left no address. Where have you been?"

There was a pause in which Hagrid stared at her with his newly uncovered eye. Harry could almost hear his brain working furiously.

"I - I've been away for me health," he said.

"For your health," repeated Professor Umbridge. Her eyes traveled over Hagrid's discolored and swollen face; dragon blood dripped gently and silently on to his waistcoat. "I see."

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "bit o' - o' fresh air, yeh know -"

"Yes, as gamekeeper fresh air must be so difficult to come by," said Umbridge sweetly. The small patch of Hagrid's face that was not black or purple, flushed.

"Well — change o' scene, yeh know –"

"Mountain scenery?" said Umbridge swiftly.

She knows, Harry thought desperately.

"Mountains?" Hagrid repeated, clearly thinking fast. "Nope, South o' France fer me. Bit o' sun an'… an' sea."

"Really?" said Umbridge. "You don't have much of a tan."

"Yeah… well… sensitive skin," said Hagrid, attempting an ingratiating smile. Harry noticed that two of his teeth had been knocked out. Umbridge looked at him coldly; his smile faltered. Then she hoisted her handbag a little higher into the crook of her arm and said, "I shall, of course, be informing the Minister of your late return."

"Righ'," said Hagrid, nodding.

"You ought to know, too, that as High Inquisitor it is my unfortunate but necessary duty to inspect my fellow teachers. So I daresay we shall meet again soon enough."

She turned sharply and marched back to the door.

"You're inspectin' us?" Hagrid repeated blankly, looking after her.

"Oh, yes," said Umbridge softly, looking back at him with her hand on the door handle. "The Ministry is determined to weed out unsatisfactory teachers, Hagrid. Goodnight."

She left, closing the door behind her with a snap. Harry made to pull off the Invisibility Cloak but Hermione seized his wrist.

"Not yet," she breathed in his ear. "She might not be gone yet."

Hagrid seemed to be thinking the same way; he stumped across the room and pulled back the curtain an inch or so.

"She's goin' back ter the castle," he said in a low voice. "Blimey… inspectin' people, is she?"

"Yeah," said Harry, pulling off the Cloak. "Trelawney's on probation already…"

"Um… what sort of thing are you planning to do with us in class, Hagrid?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, don' you worry abou' that, I've got a great load o' lessons planned," said Hagrid enthusiastically, scooping up his dragon steak from the table and slapping it over his eye again. "I've bin keepin' a couple o' creatures saved fer yer OWL year; you wait, they're somethin' really special."

"Erm… special in what way?" asked Hermione tentatively.

"I'm not sayin'," said Hagrid happily. "I don' wan t ter spoil the surprise."

"Look, Hagrid," said Hermione urgently, dropping all pretence, "Professor Umbridge won't be at all happy if you bring anything to class that's too dangerous."

"Dangerous?" said Hagrid, looking genially bemused. "Don' be silly, I wouldn' give yeh anythin' dangerous! I mean, all righ', they can look after themselves -"

"Hagrid, you've got to pass Umbridge's inspection, and to do that it would really be better if she saw you teaching us how to look after Porlocks, how to tell the difference between Knarls and hedgehogs, stuff like that!" said Hermione earnestly.

"But tha's not very interestin', Hermione,"said Hagrid. "The stuff I've got's much more impressive. I've bin bringin' 'em on fer years, I reckon I've got the on'y domestic herd in Britain."

"Hagrid… please…" said Hermione, a note of real desperation in her voice. "Umbridge is looking for any excuse to get rid of teachers she thinks are too close to Dumbledore. Please, Hagrid, teach us something dull that's bound to come up in our OWL."

But Hagrid merely yawned widely and cast a one-eyed look of longing towards the vast bed in the corner.

"Lis'en, it's bin a long day an' it's late," he said, patting Hermione gently on the shoulder, so that her knees gave way and hit the floor with a thud. "Oh - sorry -" He pulled her back up by the neck of her robes. "Look, don' you go worryin' abou' me, I promise yeh I've got really good stuff planned fer yer lessons now I'm back… now you lot had better get back up to the castle, an' don' forget ter wipe yer footprints out behind yeh!"

"I dunno if you got through to him," said Ron a short while later when, having checked that the coast was clear, they walked back up to the castle through the thickening snow, leaving no trace behind them due to the Obliteration Charm Hermione was performing as they went.

"Then I'll go back again tomorrow," said Hermione determinedly. "I'll plan his lessons for him if I have to. I don't care if she throws out Trelawney but she's not getting rid of Hagrid!"


	17. Care of Magical Creatures and Thestrals

Chapter 16: Care of Magical Creatures and Thestrals

Hermione and Anne ploughed there way back to Hagrid's cabin through two feet of snow on Sunday morning. Harry and Ron wanted to go with them, but their mountain of homework had reached an alarming height again, so they remained grudgingly in the common room, trying to ignore the gleeful shouts drifting up from the grounds outside, where students were enjoying themselves skating on the frozen lake, tobogganing and, worst of all, bewitching snowballs to zoom up to Gryffindor Tower and rap hard on the windows.

"Oy!" bellowed Ron, finally losing patience and sticking his head out of the window, "I am a prefect and if one more snowball hits this window -OUCH!"

He withdrew his head sharply, his face covered in snow.

"It's Fred and George," he said bitterly, slamming the window behind him. "Gits…"

Hermione and Anne returned from Hagrid's just before lunch, shivering slightly, their robes damp to their knees.

"So?" said Ron, looking up when she entered. "Got all his lessons planned for him?"

"Well, I tried," Hermoine said dully, sinking into a chair beside Harry. She pulled out her wand and gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; she then pointed this at her robes, which began to steam as they dried out. "He wasn't even there when we arrived."

"We were knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the Forest -" continued Anne.

Harry groaned. The Forbidden Forest was teeming with the kind of creatures most likely to get Hagrid the sack.

"What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" he asked.

"No," said Hermione miserably. "He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study Knarls than Chimaeras - oh, I don't think he's got a Chimaera," she added at the appalled look on Harry and Ron's faces, "but that's not for lack of trying, from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries."

Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand; others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Harry knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons, and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of him knew that they had good reason: Grubbly-Plank's idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off.

It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Harry, Anne, Ron, and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Harry was worried, not only about what Hagrid might have decided to teach them, but also about how the rest of the class, particularly Malfoy and his cronies, would behave if Umbridge was watching them. However, the High Inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow towards Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the Forest.

He did not present a reassuring sight; the bruises that had been purple on Saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. Harry could not understand this: had Hagrid perhaps been attacked by some creature whose venom prevented the wounds it inflicted from healing? As though to complete the ominous picture, Hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder.

"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark."

"What prefers the dark?" Harry heard Malfoy say sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark - did you hear?"

Harry remembered the only other occasion on which Malfoy had entered the Forest before now; he had not been very brave then, either. He smiled to himself; after the Quidditch match anything that caused Malfoy discomfort was all right with him.

"Ready?" said Hagrid cheerfully, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the Forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em."

"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Malfoy, the panic in his voice even more pronounced. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"

The Slytherins murmured agreement and a few Gryffindors looked as though they thought Malfoy had a fair point, too.

"Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.

"So what happened to your face, then?" demanded Malfoy.

"Mind yer own business!" said Hagrid, angrily. "Now, if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"

He turned and strode straight into the Forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione, who sighed but nodded, and the three of them set off after Hagrid, leading the rest of the class.

They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow at all on the ground. With a grunt, Hagrid deposited his half a cow on the ground, stepped back and turned to face his class, most of whom were creeping from tree to tree towards him, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.

"Gather roun', gather roun'," Hagrid encouraged. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me."

He turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird. Nobody laughed: most of them looked too scared to make a sound. Hagrid gave the shrieking cry again. A minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. And then, as Hagrid shook his hair back for a third time and expanded his enormous chest, Harry nudged Ron and pointed into the black space between two gnarled yew trees.

A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness.

It surveyed the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs.

A great wave of relief broke over Harry. Here at last was proof that he had not imagined these creatures, that they were real: Hagrid knew about them too. He looked eagerly at Anne, but Anne, just like Ron and Hermione, was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds he whispered, "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"

Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Anne's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face; and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leathery wings closer to its body and dipped its head to gorge on the meat. "Now… put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"

Immensely pleased to feel that he was at last going to understand the mystery of these horses, Harry raised his hand. Hagrid nodded at him.

"Yeah… yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," he said seriously. "An' you too, Neville, eh? An' -"

"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"

For an answer, Hagrid pointed at the cow carcass on the ground. The whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped and Parvati squealed. Harry understood why: bits of flesh stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air had to look very odd indeed.

"What's doing it?" Anne demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind Harry.

"What's eating it?" asked another classmate.

"Thestrals," said Hagrid proudly and Hermione gave a soft "Oh!" of comprehension at Harry's shoulder. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows -?"

"But they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once -"

"No, no, no," said Hagrid, chuckling, "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate - an' here's another couple, look -"

Two more horses came quietly out of the trees, one of them passing very close to Parvati, who shivered and pressed herself closer to the tree next to her, saying, "I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"

"Don' worry, it won' hurt yen," said Hagrid patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' yeh can see 'em an' some can't?"

Hermione raised her hand.

"Go on then," said Hagrid, beaming at her.

"The only people who can see Thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."

"Tha's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly, "ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, Thestrals -"

"Hem, hem."

Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few feet away from Harry, wearing her green hat and cloak again, her clipboard at the ready. Hagrid, who had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest Thestral, evidently under the impression that it had made the sound.

"Hem, hem."

"Oh, hello!" Hagrid said, smiling, having located the source of the noise.

"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" said Umbridge, in the same loud, slow voice she had used with him earlier, as though she were addressing somebody both foreign and very slow.

"Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"

"Oh, yeah," said Hagrid brightly. "Glad yeh found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see - or, I dunno - can you? We're doin' Thestrals today -"

"I'm sorry?" said Professor Umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. "What did you say?"

Hagrid looked a little confused.

"Er - Thestrals!" he said loudly. "Big - er - winged horses, yeh know!"

He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully. Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard: "Has… to… resort… to… crude… sign… language."

"Well… anyway…" said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered, "erm… what was I sayin'?"

"Appears… to… have… poor… short… term… memory," muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Draco Malfoy looked as though Christmas had come a month early; Hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage.

"Oh, yeah," said Hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at Umbridge's clipboard, but ploughing on valiantly. "Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. This one," he patted the fir st horse to have appeared, "name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the Forest -"

"Are you aware," Umbridge said loudly, interrupting him, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified Thestrals as 'dangerous'?"

Harry's heart sank like a stone, but Hagrid merely chuckled.

"Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ', they might take a bite outta yeh if yeh really annoy them -"

"Shows… signs… of… pleasure… at… idea… of… violence," muttered Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.

"No - come on!" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious now. "I mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it - but Thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing - people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"

Umbridge did not answer; she finished writing her last note, then looked up at Hagrid and said, again very loudly and slowly, "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk," she mimed walking (Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were having silent fits of laughter) "among the students" (she pointed around at individual members of the class) "and ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.

Hagrid stared at her, clearly at a complete loss to understand why she was acting as though he did not understand normal English. Hermione had tears of fury in her eyes now.

"You hag, you evil hag!" she whispered, as Umbridge walked towards Pansy Parkinson. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious -"

"Erm… anyway," said Hagrid, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson, "so - Thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them…"

"Do you find," said Professor Umbridge in a ringing voice to Pansy Parkinson, "that you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he talks?"

Just like Hermione, Pansy had tears in her eyes, but these were tears of laughter; indeed, her answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles.

"No… because… well… it sounds… like grunting a lot of the time."

Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. The few unbruised bits of Hagrid's face flushed, but he tried to act as though he had not heard Pansy's answer.

"Er… yeah… good stuff abou' Thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go -"

"Assuming they can understand you, of course," said Malfoy loudly, and Pansy Parkinson collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles.

Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Neville.

"You can see the Thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" she said.

Neville nodded.

"Who did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.

"My… my grandad," said Neville.

"And what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to bone.

"Erm," said Neville nervously, with a glance at Hagrid. "Well, they're… er… okay…"

"Students… are… too… intimidated… to… admit… they… are… frightened," muttered Umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.

"No!" said Neville, looking upset. "No, I'm not scared of them!"

"It's quite all right," said Umbridge, patting Neville on the shoulder with what she evidently intended to be an understanding smile, though it looked more like a leer to Harry. "Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with. You will receive" (she mimed taking something from the air in front of her) "the results of your inspection" (she pointed at the clipboard) "in ten days' time." She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toadlike than ever before beneath her green hat, she bustled from their midst, leaving Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson in fits of laughter, Hermione actually shaking with fury and Neville looking confused and upset.

"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione half an hour later, as they made their way back up to the castle through the channels they had made earlier in the snow. "You see what she's up to? It's her thing about half-breeds all over again - she's trying to make out Hagrid's some kind of dimwitted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother - and oh, it's not fair, that really wasn't a bad lesson at all - I mean, all right, if it had been Blast-Ended Skrewts again, but Thestrals are fine - in fact, for Hagrid, they're really good!"

"Umbridge said they're dangerous," said Ron.

"Well, it's like Hagrid said, they can look after themselves," said Hermione impatiently, "and I suppose a teacher like Grubbly-Plank wouldn't usually show them to us before NEWT level, but, well, they are very interesting, aren't they? The way some people can see them and some can't! I wish I could."

"Do you?" Harry asked her quietly.

She looked suddenly horror-struck.

"Oh, Harry - I'm sorry - no, of course I don't - that was a really stupid thing to say."

"It's okay," he said quickly, "don't worry"

"I'm surprised so many people could see them," said Ron. "Three in a class -"

"Yeah, Weasley, we were just wondering," said a malicious voice. Unheard by any of them in the muffling snow, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were walking along right behind them. "D'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the Quaffle better?"

He, Crabbe and Goyle roared with laughter as they pushed past on their way to the castle, then broke into a chorus of "Weasley is our King". Ron's ears turned scarlet.

"Ignore them, just ignore them," intoned Anne.

Hermione pulled out her wand and performed the charm to produce hot air again, so that she could melt them all an easier path through the untouched snow between them and the greenhouses.


	18. Snake Eyes

Chapter 17: Snake Eyes

December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche of homework for the fifth-years. Ron and Hermione's prefect duties also became more and more onerous as Christmas approached. They were called upon to supervise the decoration of the castle, to watch over first- and second-years spending their break-times inside because of the bitter cold, and to patrol the corridors in shifts with Argus Filch, who suspected that the holiday spirit might show itself in an outbreak of wizard duels. They were so busy that Hermione had even stopped knitting elf hats and was fretting that she was down to her last three.

"All those poor elves I haven't set free yet, having to stay here over Christmas because there aren't enough hats!"

Harry, who had not had the heart to tell her that Dobby was taking everything she made, bent lower over his History of Magic essay.

In any case, he did not want to think about Christmas. For the first time in his school career, he very much wanted to spend the holidays away from Hogwarts. Between his Quidditch ban and worry about whether or not Hagrid was going to be put on probation, he felt highly resentful towards the place at the moment. The only thing he really looked forward to at Hogwarts were the D.A. meetings, and they would have to stop over the holidays, as nearly everybody in the D.A. would be spending the time with their families. Hermione was going skiing with her parents, something that greatly amused Ron, who had never heard of Muggles strapping narrow strips of wood on to their feet to slide down mountains.

Ron was going home to The Burrow. Harry endured several days of envy before Ron said, in response to Harry asking him how he was going to get home for Christmas: "But you're coming too! Didn't I say? Mum wrote and told me to invite you weeks ago!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, but Harry's spirits soared: the thought of Christmas at The Burrow was truly wonderful, though slightly marred by Harry's guilty feeling that he would not be able to spend the holiday with Sirius. He wondered whether he could possibly persuade Mrs. Weasley to invite his godfather for the festivities.

Even though he doubted whether Dumbledore would permit Sirius to leave Grimmauld Place anyway, he could not help but think Mrs. Weasley might not want him; they were so often at loggerheads. Sirius had not contacted Harry at all since his last appearance in the fire, and although Harry knew that with Umbridge on constant watch it would be unwise to attempt to contact him, he did not like to think of Sirius alone in his mother's old house, perhaps pulling a lonely cracker with Kreacher.

"Mrs. Weasley even invited my parents to spend the holidays with them. So looks like we'll be able to spend Christmas together." said Anne.

This information made Harry wish the holidays were tomorrow as he couldn't wait to meet Anne's family.

* * *

Harry arrived early in the Room of Requirement for the last D.A. meeting before the holidays and was very glad he had, because when the lamps burst into light he saw that Dobby had taken it upon himself to decorate the place for Christmas. He could tell the elf had done it, because nobody else would have strung a hundred golden baubles from the ceiling, each showing a picture of Harry's face and bearing the legend: HAVE A VERY HARRY CHRISTMAS!

Harry had only just managed to get the last of them down before the door creaked open and Luna Lovegood entered, looking as dreamy as always.

"Hello," she said vaguely, looking around at what remained of the decorations. "These are nice, did you put them up?"

"No," said Harry, "it was Dobby the house-elf."

"Mistletoe," said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head.

He jumped out from under it.

"Good thinking," said Luna very seriously. "It's often infested with Nargles."

Harry was saved the necessity of asking what Nargles were by the arrival of Angelina, Katie and Alicia. All three of them were breathless and looked very cold.

"Well," said Angelina dully, pulling off her cloak and throwing it into a corner, "we've finally replaced you."

"Replaced me?" said Harry blankly.

"You and Fred and George," she said impatiently. "We've got another Seeker!"

"Who?" said Harry quickly.

"Ginny Weasley," said Katie.

Harry gaped at her.

"Yeah, I know," said Angelina, pulling out her wand and flexing her arm, "but she's pretty good, actually. Nothing on you, of course," she said, throwing him a very dirty look, "but as we can't have you…"

Harry bit back the retort he was longing to utter: did she imagine for a second that he did not regret his expulsion from the team a hundred times more than she did?

"And what about the Beaters?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even.

"Andrew Kirke," said Alicia without enthusiasm, "and Jack Sloper. Neither of them are brilliant, but compared to the rest of the idiots who turned up…"

The arrival of Ron, Hermione, Anne, and Neville brought this depressing discussion to an end, and within five minutes the room was full enough to prevent Harry seeing Angelina's burning, reproachful looks.

"Okay," he said, calling them all to order. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break -"

"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."

"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," said Fred loudly.

Several people sniggered. Harry saw Cho laughing and felt the familiar swooping sensation in his stomach, as though he had missed a step going downstairs.

"- we can practice in pairs," said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."

They all divided up obediently; Harry partnered Anne.

The room was soon full of intermittent cries of "Impedimenta!" People froze for a minute or so, during which their partner would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn at the jinx.

Anne had improved beyond all recognition. For someone who didn't know magic existed before the summer, she had come a long way. She looked pretty confident performing magic for someone who was pretty self conscious at the beginning of term.

After a while, when Harry had unfrozen three times in a row, he had Anne join Ron and Hermione again so that he could walk around the room and watch the others. When he passed Cho she beamed at him; he resisted the temptation to walk past her several more times.

After ten minutes on the Impediment Jinx, they laid out cushions all over the floor and started practicing Stunning again. Space was really too confined to allow them all to work this spell at once; half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over.

Harry felt himself positively swelling with pride as he watched them all. True, Neville did Stun Padma Patil rather than Dean, at whom he had been aiming, but it was a much closer miss than usual, and everybody else had made enormous progress.

At the end of an hour, Harry called a halt.

"You're getting really good," he said, beaming around at them. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff - maybe even Patronuses."

There was a murmur of excitement. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people wished Harry a "Happy Christmas" as they went. Feeling cheerful, he collected up the cushions with Ron, Hermione, and Anne and stacked them neatly away. They all left before he did; he hung back a little, because Cho was still there and he was hoping to receive a "Happy Christmas" from her.

"No, you go on," he heard her say to her friend Marietta and his heart gave a jolt that seemed to take it into the region of his Adam's apple.

He pretended to be straightening the cushion pile. He was quite sure they were alone now and waited for her to speak. Instead, he heard a hearty sniff.

He turned and saw Cho standing in the middle of the room, tears pouring down her face.

"Wha—?"

He didn't know what to do. She was simply standing there, crying silently.

"What's up?" he said, feebly.

She shook her head and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

"I'm - sorry," she said thickly. "I suppose… it's just… learning all this stuff… it just makes me… wonder whether… if he'd known it all… he'd still be alive."

Harry's heart sank right back past its usual spot and settled somewhere around his navel. He ought to have known. She wanted to talk about Cedric.

"He did know this stuff," Harry said heavily. "He was really good at it, or he could never have got to the middle of that maze. But if Voldemort really wants to kill you, you don't stand a chance."

She hiccoughed at the sound of Voldemort's name, but stared at Harry without flinching.

"You survived when you were just a baby," she said quietly.

"Yeah, well," said Harry wearily, moving towards the door, "I dunno why nor does anyone else, so it's nothing to be proud of."

"Oh, don't go!" said Cho, sounding tearful again. "I'm really sorry to get all upset like this… I didn't mean to…"

She hiccoughed again. She was very pretty even when her eyes were red and puffy.

Harry felt thoroughly miserable. He'd have been so pleased with just a "Happy Christmas".

"I know it must be horrible for you," she said, mop ping her eyes on her sleeve again. "Me mentioning Cedric, when you saw him die… I suppose you just want to forget about it?"

Harry did not say anything to this; it was quite true, but he felt heartless saying it.

"You're a r-really good teacher, you know," said Cho, with a watery smile. "I've never been able to Stun anything before."

"Thanks," said Harry awkwardly.

They looked at each other for a long moment. Harry felt a burning desire to run from the room and, at the same time, a complete inability to move his feet.

"Mistletoe," said Cho quietly, pointing at the ceiling over his head.

"Yeah," said Harry. His mouth was very dry. "It's probably full of Nargles, though."

"What are Nargles?"

"No idea," said Harry. She had moved closer. His brain seemed to have been Stunned. "You'd have to ask Loony. Luna, I mean."

Cho made a funny noise halfway between a sob and a laugh. She was even nearer to him now.

He could have counted the freckles on her nose.

"I really like you, Harry."

He could not think. A tingling sensation was spreading through him, paralysing his arms, legs and brain.

She was much too close. He could see every tear clinging to her eyelashes…

* * *

He returned to the common room half an hour later to find Anne, Hermione, and Ron in the best seats by the fire; nearly everybody else had gone to bed. Hermione was writing a very long letter; she had already filled half a roll of parchment, which was dangling from the edge of the table. Ron and Anne were lying on the hearthrug, helping each other finish their Transfiguration homework.

"What kept you?" Ron asked, as Harry sank into the armchair next to Hermione's.

Harry didn't answer. He was in a state of shock. Half of him wanted to tell Anne, Ron, and Hermione what had just happened, but the other half wanted to take the secret with him to the grave.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Anne asked, peering at him over the tip of her quill.

Harry gave a half-hearted shrug. In truth, he didn't know whether he was all right or not.

"What's up?" said Ron, hoisting himself up on his elbow to get a clearer view of Harry. "What's happened?"

Harry didn't quite know how to set about telling them, and still wasn't sure whether he wanted to. Just as he had decided not to say anything, Hermione took matters out of his hands.

"Is it Cho?" she asked in a businesslike way. "Did she corner you after the meeting?"

Numbly surprised, Harry nodded. Ron sniggered, breaking off when Hermione caught his eye.

"So - er - what did she want?" he asked in a mock casual voice.

"She -" Harry began, rather hoarsely; he cleared his throat and tried again. "She - er -"

"Did you kiss?" asked Hermione briskly.

Ron sat up so fast he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug.

"Ron watch it." said Anne making sure the ink didn't get on her almost complete homework.

Disregarding this completely, Ron stared avidly at Harry.

"Well?" he demanded.

Harry looked from Ron's expression of mingled curiosity and hilarity to Anne and Hermione's slight frown, and nodded.

"HA!"

Ron made a triumphant gesture with his fist and went into a raucous peal of laughter that made several timid-looking second-years over beside the window jump. A reluctant grin spread over Harry's face as he watched Ron rolling around on the hearthrug.

Hermione gave Ron a look of deep disgust and returned to her letter.

"Well?" Ron said finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?"

"Um... hello, I really don't want to hear all about my brothers personal life!" cried Anne while putting her hands over her ears.

Harry considered for a moment.

"Wet," he said truthfully, trying not to give out too much information to his horrified sister.

Ron made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust, it was hard to tell.

"Because she was crying," Harry continued heavily.

"Oh," said Ron, his smile fading slightly. "Are you that bad at kissing?"

"Dunno," said Harry, who hadn't considered this, and immediately felt rather worried. "Maybe I am."

"Of course you're not," said Hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter.

"How do you know?" said Ron very sharply.

"Because Cho spends half her time crying these days," said Hermione vaguely. "She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place."

"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," said Ron, grinning.

"Ron," said Hermione in a dignified voice, dipping the point of her quill into her inkpot, "you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Ron indignantly. "What sort of person cries while someone's kissing them?"

"Yeah," said Harry, slightly desperately, "who does?"

Hermione looked at the pair of them with an almost pitying expression on her face.

"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?" she asked.

"No," said Harry and Ron together.

Hermione sighed and laid down her quill.

"Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings towards Harry are, anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione nastily picking up her quill again.

"She was the one who started it," said Harry. "I wouldn't've - she just sort of came at me - and next thing she's crying all over me - I didn't know what to do —"

"Don't blame you, mate," said Ron, looking alarmed at the very thought.

"You just had to be nice to her," said Hermione, looking up anxiously.

"You were, weren't you?" asked Anne.

"Well," said Harry, an unpleasant heat creeping up his face, "I sort of - patted her on the back a bit."

Hermione looked as though she was restraining herself from rolling her eyes with extreme difficulty.

"Well, I suppose it could have been worse," she said. "Are you going to see her again?"

"I'll have to, won't I?" said Harry. "We've got D.A. meetings, haven't we?"

"You know what I mean," said Hermione impatiently.

Harry said nothing. Hermione's words opened up a whole new vista of frightening possibilities.

He tried to imagine going somewhere with Cho — Hogsmeade, perhaps - and being alone with her for hours at a time. Of course, she would have been expecting him to ask her out after what had just happened… the thought made his stomach clench painfully.

"Oh well," said Hermione distantly, buried in her letter once more, "you'll have plenty of opportunities to ask her."

"What if he doesn't want to ask her?" said Ron, who had been watching Harry with an unusually shrewd expression on his face.

"Don't be silly," said Hermione vaguely, "Harry's liked her for ages, haven't you, Harry?"

He did not answer. Yes, he had liked Cho for ages, but whenever he had imagined a scene involving the two of them it had always featured a Cho who was enjoying herself, as opposed to a Cho who was sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder.

"Who're you writing the novel to, anyway?" Ron asked Hermione, trying to read the bit of parchment now trailing on the floor. Hermione hitched it up out of sight.

"Viktor."

"Krum?"

"How many other Viktors do we know?"

Ron said nothing, but looked disgruntled. They sat in silence for another twenty minutes, Ron finishing his Transfiguration essay with many snorts of impatience and crossings-out, Hermione writing steadily to the very end of the parchment, rolling it up carefully and sealing it, and Harry staring into the fire, wishing more than anything that Sirius's head would appear there and give him some advice about girls.

But the fire merely crackled lower and lower, until the red-hot embers crumbled into ash and, looking around, Harry saw that they were, yet again, the last ones in the common room.

"Well, night," said Hermione, yawning widely as she set off up the girls' staircase, with Anne right behind her.

"What does she see in Krum?" Ron demanded, as he and Harry climbed the boys' stairs.

"Well," said Harry, considering the matter, "I s'pose he's older, isn't he… and he's an international Quidditch player…"

"Yeah, but apart from that," said Ron, sounding aggravated. "I mean, he's a grouchy git, isn't he?"

"Bit grouchy, yeah," said Harry, whose thoughts were still on Cho.

They pulled off their robes and put on pajamas in silence; Dean, Seamus and Neville were already asleep. Harry put his glasses on his bedside table and got into bed but did not pull the hangings closed around his four-poster; instead, he stared at the patch of starry sky visible through the window next to Neville's bed. If he had known, this time last night, that in twenty-four hours' time he would have kissed Cho Chang…

"Night," grunted Ron, from somewhere to his right.

"Night," said Harry.

Maybe next time… if there was a next time… she'd be a bit happier. He ought to have asked her out; she had probably been expecting it and was now really angry with him… or was she lying in bed, still crying about Cedric? He did not know what to think. Hermione's explanation had made it all seem more complicated rather than easier to understand.

That's what they should teach us here, he thought, turning over on to his side, how girls' brains work… it'd be more useful than Divination, anyway…

Neville snuffled in his sleep. An owl hooted somewhere out in the night.

_Harry dreamed he was back in the D.A. room. Cho was accusing him of luring her there under false pretences; she said he had promised her a hundred and fifty Chocolate Frog Cards if she showed up. Harry protested… Cho shouted, "Cedric gave me loads of Chocolate Frog Cards, look!" And she pulled out fistfuls of Cards from inside her robes and threw them into the air._

_Then she turned into Hermione, who said, "You did promise her, you know, Harry… I think you'd better give her something else instead… how about your Firebolt?"_

_And Harry was protesting that he could not give Cho his Firebolt, because Umbridge had it, and anyway the whole thing was ridiculous, he'd only come to the D.A. room to put up some Christmas baubles shaped like Dobby's head…_

The dream changed…

_His body felt smooth, powerful and flexible._

_He was gliding between shining metal bars, across dark, cold stone… he was flat against the floor, sliding along on his belly… it was dark, yet he could see objects around him shimmering in strange, vibrant colors… he was turning his head… at first glance the corridor was empty… but no… a man was sitting on the floor ahead, his chin drooping on to his chest, his outline gleaming in the dark…_

_Harry put out his tongue… he tasted the man's scent on the air… he was alive but drowsy… sitting in front of a door at the end of the corridor…_

_Harry longed to bite the man… but he must master the impulse… he had more important work to do…_

_But the man was stirring… a silver Cloak fell from his legs as he jumped to his feet; and Harry saw his vibrant, blurred outline towering above him, saw a wand withdrawn from a belt… he had no choice… he reared high from the floor and struck once, twice, three times, plunging his fangs deeply into the man's flesh, feeling his ribs splinter beneath his jaws, feeling the warm gush of blood… The man was yelling in pain… then he fell silent… he slumped backwards against the wall… blood was splattering on to the floor…_

His forehead hurt terribly… it was aching fit to burst…

"Harry! HARRY!"

He opened his eyes. Every inch of his body was covered in icy sweat; his bed covers were twisted all around him like a strait-jacket; he felt as though a white-hot poker were being applied to his forehead.

"Harry!"

Ron was standing over him looking extremely frightened. There were more figures at the foot of Harry's bed. He clutched his head in his hands; the pain was blinding him… he rolled right over and vomited over the edge of the mattress.

"He's really ill," said a scared voice. "Should we call someone?"

"Harry! Harry!"

He had to tell Ron, it was very important that he tell him… taking great gulps of air, Harry pushed himself up in bed, willing himself not to throw up again, the pain half-blinding him.

"Your dad," he panted, his chest heaving. "Your dad's… been attacked…"

"What?" said Ron uncomprehendingly.

"Your dad! He's been bitten, it's serious, there was blood everywhere…"

"I'm going for help," said the same scared voice, and Harry heard footsteps running out of the dormitory.

"Harry, mate," said Ron uncertainly, "you… you were just dreaming…"

"No!" said Harry furiously; it was crucial that Ron understand. "It wasn't a dream… not an ordinary dream… I was there, I saw it… I did it…"

He could hear Seamus and Dean muttering but did not care. The pain in his forehead was subsiding slightly, though he was still sweating and shivering feverishly. He retched again and Ron leapt backwards out of the way.

"Harry, you're not well," he said shakily. "Neville's gone for help."

"I'm fine!" Harry choked, wiping his mouth on his pyjamas and shaking uncontrollably.

"There's nothing wrong with me, it's your dad you've got to worry about - we need to find out where he is - he's bleeding like mad - I was - it was a huge snake."

He tried to get out of bed but Ron pushed him back into it; Dean and Seamus were still whispering somewhere nearby. Whether one minute passed or ten, Harry did not know; he simply sat there shaking, feeling the pain recede very slowly from his scar… then there were hurried footsteps coming up the stairs and he heard Neville's voice again.

"Over here, Professor."

Professor McGonagall came hurrying into the dormitory in her tartan dressing gown, her glasses perched lopsidedly on the bridge of her bony nose.

"What is it, Potter? Where does it hurt?"

He had never been so pleased to see her; it was a member of the Order of the Phoenix he needed now, not someone fussing over him and prescribing useless potions.

"It's Ron's dad," he said, sitting up again. "He's been attacked by a snake and it's serious, I saw it happen."

"What do you mean, you saw it happen?" said Professor McGonagall, her dark eyebrows contracting.

"I don't know… I was asleep and then I was there…"

"You mean you dreamed this?"

"No!" said Harry angrily; would none of them understand? "I was having a dream at first about something completely different, something stupid… and then this interrupted it. It was real, I didn't imagine it. Mr. Weasley was asleep on the floor and he was attacked by a gigantic snake, there was a load of blood, he collapsed, someone's got to find out where he is…"

Professor McGonagall was gazing at him through her lopsided spectacles as though horrified at what she was seeing.

"I'm not lying and I'm not mad!" Harry told her, his voice rising to a shout. "I tell you, I saw it happen!"

"I believe you, Potter," said Professor McGonagall curtly. "Put on your dressing gown - we're going to see the Headmaster."


End file.
